Veikkaus has been threatened with a €2.9 million fine 30-day marketing ban for its adverts appearing in TV programmes watched by minors.
The fine and ban were threatened last week on 12 November and relate to an incident in July when an ad was “wrongfully placed” around a programme aimed at minors.
Finland’s police board is tasked with overseeing Veikkaus Oy’s marketing and ensuring it complies with the Lotteries Act and the Consumer Protection Act.
As Finland’s monopoly gambling operator, Veikkaus is the only operator able to legally market its services to Finns, but it is subject to various restrictions enforced by the police board.
These include not targeting minors, including age limits in all marketing, not glamourising gambling and not promoting bonuses.
Veikkaus said in a statement the July fault was down to human error. “We are very sorry that, despite our joint development measures, our advertising has been seen in the advertising breaks of programmes aimed at minors due to human error,” Veikkaus sales and marketing director Anu Kytö said.
The company will work with the Police Board to ensure it is complying with all requirements, it said.
Police board tightens marketing rules
However, Veikkaus in its statement also flags a request the police board made in May, asking Veikkaus about its advertising in connection with television programmes that are aimed at adults but also watched by minors.
The request appeared to relate to an MTV programme and Veikkaus said it believes the board is now prohibiting advertising around television programmes that fall under third category.
“It seems that the police board may interpret the matter in a new and broader way. We have been in contact with the police board as soon as the decision was made and we are going through this issue with them,” Kytö said.
In its statement, Veikkaus flagged one of its marketing agreements with MTV. MTV’s commercial director Sauli Asikainen said the Veikkaus’ partnership with MTV includes an agreement that over 70% of a programme’s viewership must be over 18 for Veikkaus’ ads to be shown during.
“This is a jointly agreed model that has been valid for years and is known to the authorities. Now we are waiting for possible new instructions,” Asikainen said.
New marketing measures will come into place once the Finnish gambling market is liberalised in January 2026.
The European Commission is currently reviewing the country’s new gambling legislation and it will be put to Finland’s parliament in spring 2025.
