18 firms granted gambling licences in Finland as Veikkaus’s monopoly to end

The National Police Board granted its first gambling licences to 18 operators under the new Gambling Act, which opens gambling market to competition ending Veikkaus’s monopoly, said an official press release on Thursday.

The licences now granted authorise operators for instance to organise betting or online casino games. Licenced operators may begin operating and marketing games as of 1 July 2027.

Meanwhile, processing of gambling licence applications continued and at the moment, the processing time is estimated to be six to eight months.

“The National Police Board investigates for each applicant whether they fulfil the criteria provided for in the Gambling Act. For Finnish applicants, we can obtain most of their background information from national registers,” said Senior Adviser Juho Puisto from the Gambling Administration of the National Police Board.

Most of the applicants are foreign companies. In these cases, it is the applicant’s responsibility to supply the required official reports and other attachments to the National Police Board, said police.

Gambling licence applications have been accepted since March 2026.

Until the end of June 2027, gambling operations are supervised and licences granted by the National Police Board. From July 2027, these duties will be taken over by the Finnish Supervisory Agency.

Earlier in June 2026, a total 50 gambling operators, most of them are foreigners, have applied for a licence.

The President approved the new Gambling Act on January 16.

Earlier in March 2025, the government moved to end Veikkaus's gambling monopoly and submitted the legislative proposal to Parliament.