Tytti Tuppurainen revealed that Finland would launch an investigation to end its gambling monopoly.
Tuppurainen told MTV Uutiset that she hoped the investigation would begin at the start of 2023.
She said that the opposition and the government are both united on the issue of ending the monopoly.
Tuppurainen said, “As minister for ownership, I quickly made a report about a possible switch to a multiple-licence system.
It is a positive thing that even the opposition shares this view.
The country will hold its general elections on April 2, 2023. Tuppurainen is hoping that the investigation will outline how to transition from a license system to any potential change of government.
The parliamentary election is next spring. It would be great if we had enough information by then to formulate policies for the negotiations with the government.
Tuppurainen explained also that licencing will bring all gambling providers to the same level. She said many non-Veikkaus gambling operators do not offer any protection to players, while Veikkaus has strict deposit limits.
The Finnish government also does not profit from illegal gambling.
Right now, the foreign game companies operate like they are in an unruly grey area. “They are not bound by the same regulations as Veikkaus,” said she.
The situation is one that naturally creates gambling disadvantages, and the hand of the taxman has been twisted. This means the gambling profits are also sent to other countries outside Finland.
Monopoly in danger?
Veikkaus, a government-owned company that operates gambling games including slot machines and lottery games, has the exclusive right to run them in Finland.
Veikkaus, a state-controlled company, was created in 2017 by merging the three previous monopoly operators Fintoto (Finland’s Slot Machine Association), the lottery Veikkaus, and the Finnish Slot Machine Association.
Sari Multala is a member of the National Coalition Party. She said that Veikkaus monopoly in land-based gaming and lottery would be unaffected. According to her, it’s easier to regulate verticals like these when there’s only one supplier.
The [current] regulations cannot meet our needs on the online side. Multala said that monitoring is much easier offline than it is online.
The Finnish monopoly has been a source of controversy for many years. The Finnish monopoly system has been criticized for many years.
