Daily Finland
A total 50 gambling operators, most of them are foreigners, have applied for a licence so far as Finland decided to open gambling market to competition ending Veikkaus Oys monopoly, the National Police Board's Gambling Administration on Monday. According to the new law, the process to open gambling market is going on and the first gambling licences will enter into force on 1 July 2027. The gambling operators that will be granted a licence by this time will be able to start operations. The application period for the licence started on March 1, 2026 and it will continue as there is no deadline for applying for a gambling licence. It currently takes an estimated six months to process applications. After receiving the application the authority is sending an invoice to pay the processing fee, which in 2026 is €29,000. Once the processing fee has been paid, the applications will start to be processed. “The reliability and suitability of the applicants will be evaluated on the basis of documents, such as register extracts, certificates and various reports, submitted by the applicant. The complexity of processing and evaluating applications is affected by the fact that the majority of applicants are foreign,” says Juha Katainen, Senior Adviser of the National Police Board. Gambling services will continue to be supervised and licences granted by the National Police Board until the end of June 2027 and from July 2027 by the Finnish Supervisory Agency. The President approved the new Gambling Act on January 16. Earlier in March 2025, the government moved to end Veikkaus's gambling monopolyand submitted the legislative proposal to Parliament.
Go to News Site
Iltalehti 
Yle Uutiset 
Ilta-Sanomat 
Kauppalehti 
Hämeen Sanomat 
