State-owned gambling company Veikkaus has stated in its interim report that it is ready to give up its monopoly position in Finland in the hopes that the government will open the market to privately-owned betting companies.
In an interview with Ylen Ykkösaamu on Wednesday, Veikkaus’ deputy CEO Velipekka Nummikoski pointed out that gambling regulation in Finland only applies to Veikkaus while foreign gambling companies are allowed to operate with no apparent oversight.
Finland's Gambling Operator Veikkaus Ready to Give Up Monopoly“Our competitors do not operate under Finnish regulations and their license would change. Then everyone would work with the same rules of the game.”
Finland’s online gambling market was worth around €520 million in the first six months of 2022 whiole Veikkaus’ share of this figure was reported to be €260 million. According to Veikkaus’ interim report, 50% of all money wagered online in Finland goes directly to foreign companies that are unregulated by the Finnish government.
Nummikoski added:
“In Finland, we formally have an exclusive rights system, but if we look at digital gaming, Veikkaus’ market share is only half. You can already ask if we really have an exclusive system anymore.”
He then cited Sweden’s example of a licensed market before explaining:
Finland's Gambling Operator Veikkaus Ready to Give Up Monopoly“Channelization has reached 90 percent there, which was the goal of the system. And that is the most significant measure of whether the system has been successful or not. It is not worth creating such a license system, which is not capable of channeling gaming into itself. The regulation must be drawn up to its level.”
“The fact that we are currently offering games to Finnish customers shows that we are an attractive market. We would certainly get a significant number of good operators to Finland.”
