Hippos ATG chief compliance officer Antti Koivula gives Gaming Intelligence an overview of what’s in store for Finland’s re-regulated gambling market
Tuesday 16 December marked a historic moment for Finland. On that day, Parliament voted 158-9 with 32 absentees to approve the long-anticipated Gambling Reform Bill, formally ending the country’s decades-long reliance on a monopoly model. The new legislation introduces a partial licensing regime that will reshape how gambling is regulated, offered, and supervised in Finland.
Under the new framework, betting, online casino, online bingo and online slot games will move to a multi-licensing system, while other allowed gambling verticals will remain within the exclusive rights of the state-controlled operator.
The policy ambition is familiar from other Nordic and European reforms: open parts of the market to competition to improve channelisation and consumer choice, while tightening harm-prevention and enforcement to protect players and the public interest.
Timeline and scope of the new system
The B2C licensing window will open on 1 March 2026, with licensed operators permitted to enter the Finnish market from 1 July 2027. In parallel, Finland will introduce a B2B licensing regime. Applications for B2B licences will open on 1 July 2027, and from 1 July 2028 B2C licensees will only be allowed to use B2B suppliers that hold a Finnish licence.
Legislative background and international benchmarks
The reform builds heavily on the old Lotteries Act, which served as the starting point for drafting the new legislation. Many concepts, obligations and enforcement mechanisms have been carried over directly or modified only slightly, rather than rewritten from scratch.
The legislator also benchmarked foreign systems, with Sweden’s gambling framework serving as the primary reference point. Elements from the Danish, Dutch and a few of other European systems were also considered.
Licensing, fees and taxation
On both the competitive B2C side and the B2B side, the number of licences is not capped, and licences are granted for five years at a time. The B2C licensing fee is €29,000 (note: at the time of writing, this had not yet been formally confirmed).
Licensed B2C operators will be subject to a 22 per cent gambling tax on GGR, in addition to an annual supervision fee calculated on GGR. The supervision fee ranges from €4,000 for operators with under €100,000 in annual GGR up to €434,000 for operators with at least €50 million in GGR. B2B providers are subject to annual supervision fee of €1,500.
Marketing rules and restrictions
Marketing is permitted only through explicitly listed channels, including the operator’s own websites and social media accounts, TV and radio, sports events and other public events, printed media and digital publications equivalent to printed media, search engines, outdoor advertising, direct marketing with explicit customer consent, and sponsorships.
Even within these permitted channels, significant restrictions apply. The use of affiliates and influencers is prohibited, and digital marketing is generally heavily limited. In practice, this is a framework where operators must work harder to earn attention through brand trust and product quality, rather than the typical aggressive acquisition mechanics.
Bonuses and player incentives
Bonuses will be allowed only in a limited and tightly controlled form. Moderate bonuses may be offered to existing customers, but the amount a player has gambled may not influence bonus eligibility or value. In practice, this eliminates welcome bonuses and VIP. Bonus wagering requirements must fall between 1x and 5x.
Player identification and financial safeguards
All players must register and authenticate using strong electronic identification. Gambling with cryptocurrencies is prohibited, as is gambling on credit.
Players will be required to set self-imposed deposit limits. Mandatory loss limits are not included in the initial implementation, although the legislative materials suggest that mandatory loss limits could be introduced later through secondary regulation.
Responsible gambling and duty of care
Finland will introduce a centralised gambling blocking system, closely modelled on Sweden’s Spelpaus. In addition, operators must offer operator-specific blocks as well as game-type or game-specific blocks.
The duty of care obligations require licence holders to use automated processing of specified player data to assess the risk of gambling-related harm and to intervene where necessary. Importantly, the system also includes a so-called “panic button”, allowing players to suspend all gambling immediately until the end of the following day. Additionally, the framework mandates gambling time reminders, clear on-screen responsible gambling notices, and clear information on available self-exclusion tools and public gambling harm support services.
Enforcement and supervision
The regulator is equipped with an enforcement toolbox that includes cease-and-desist orders, administrative fines, content and website removal orders, public “name and shame” listings, referrals to criminal proceedings, and ultimately licence revocation. These tools provide a solid framework for supervising licensed operators that are identifiable, cooperative and operating within the regulatory perimeter. Their ability to address unlicensed offshore operators is, however, more questionable. The possible introduction of payment service provider and internet service provider blocking mechanisms was expressly left for future assessment.
Decree-level regulation and remaining uncertainty
Several key elements of the system were intentionally left to be defined through government or ministerial decrees following the bill’s approval. While this allows flexibility and faster regulatory responses, it also introduces uncertainty, as decree-level rules can be amended relatively quickly.
Notably, matters such as mandatory loss limits, permitted game characteristics (for example autoplay or bonus buy features), temporal and time-based restrictions, maximum stakes, and round speeds will be determined at decree level rather than directly in the Act. For operators this makes Finland a market where compliance readiness must include not only the statute, but also active monitoring of secondary regulation and its practical interpretation.
What this means for horse betting and Hippos ATG
Hippos ATG is one of the operators preparing for Finland’s new licensing regime. The company has been established to operate in the re-regulated Finnish gambling market with a strong focus on horse racing and is a 50–50 joint venture between the central organisation of Finnish equestrian sports and horse breeding, Suomen Hippos ry, and Sweden’s most prominent gambling operator, ATG. This structure combines deep roots in Finnish horse racing with more than five decades of experience from regulated gambling markets.
The premise is straightforward: in a licensed and competitive environment, horse racing can remain viable only if it competes as a modern gambling product. Horse betting does not exist in isolation, but competes directly with sports betting and online casino, both of which invest heavily in innovation and user experience. To retain its position, horse racing must meet comparable consumer expectations while preserving its close connection to the sport itself through continuous product development and a clear prioritisation of horse racing as a core offering.
The ownership structure reinforces this alignment. Hippos ATG is owned by the sport, and profits flow back to sport. Suomen Hippos receives 60 per cent of all profits, regardless of whether customers choose horse betting, sports betting or casino products. This creates a direct and transparent link between commercial success and the future of Finnish horse racing that no other operator in Finland can match.
Responsible gambling is embedded into this model. Finland’s reform offers a rare opportunity to build a sustainable gambling market from the outset, and the ambition is to combine modern player protection tools with transparency and a genuinely player-first mindset. Operationally, Hippos ATG is building a Finnish organisation for Finnish consumers, operating from Finland with a local team that understands the culture, language and regulatory environment.
This article was first published in the January 2026 issue of GIQ magazine.