The first Parliament reading of Finland’s gambling bill shed light on the reasons for its implementation being delayed, as Licensing and Supervision Agency doesn’t have enough staff to hit the timeline.
A report from the Administrative Committee called for a six-month postponement to the implementation of the country’s commercial licensing gambling market until 1 July 2027.
Earlier this week, representatives in a Parliament plenary session debated the delay, as the market was initially scheduled to launch on 1 January 2027. The debate saw Tuomas Kettunen of the Centre Party question Sinuhe Wallinheimo of the Coalition Party if the gambling market’s implementation was delayed as a result of election politicking.
The delay aligns the introduction with the upcoming election, which is set to take place in 2027 – inevitably gambling framework and advertising are set to be key topics during the election buildup as the country undergoes transformation.
“Representative Wallinheimo, was this finally a matter of the fact that the postponement of the Gambling Act was a purely political consideration on the part of the Coalition Party?” stated Kettunen.
“Was it a matter of political consideration? Namely, nowhere has it been mentioned that the gambling reform could come into force as the government originally proposed, i.e. at the beginning of 2027.
“In other words, was this a matter of some kind of election politicking, that the Coalition Party did not want this advertising rally to start on 1 January 2027, because the parliamentary elections will be held on 18 April 2027?”
Kettunen queried that the Coalition Party is worried that its election advertising would be impacted by the incoming advertising from the gambling sector following the licensed market’s launch and thus wanted its implementation delayed until after the elections.
“This advertising rally will only start a couple of months after the parliamentary elections. What was the Coalition Party worried about in this matter?
“Was it that the Coalition Party would not receive its election advertisements, when so many advertisements from gaming companies are appearing in the newspapers? Or was it that there was a bit of concern that if these disadvantages start to occur, what kind of impact will this have on the election result of the National Coalition Party?”
Agency responsibilities
Wallinheimo hit back and emphasised that the delay was due to there not being enough staff ready to meet the demands of the Licensing and Supervision Agency’s responsibilities as regulator of the commercially licensed market, in addition to the fact that the agency itself is still in its infancy.
Wallinheimo stated: “The permits for the first year, 2026, are indeed taken in by the National Police Board, and from the beginning of 2027 this would have then gone under the supervision of the licensing and supervision authorities. Such an organisation, Representative Kettunen, does not exist.
“We have no information about what type of people will be working there in the future, and on the same day they would have been given this huge task. It is simply not possible. That is why, first of all, since the Licensing and Supervision Authority does not exist, we are now wondering whether there are perhaps such people in the police administration who could transfer there, but even there are only a handful of people.
“The Licensing and Supervision Authority needs dozens of people to carry out this supervision. Such an organisation, Representative Kettunen, does not exist before 2027. That is why it made sense to take a six-month break here, so that people can genuinely get to work there and they know what they are supervising, after which they can then do their job properly.”
Stakeholders interested in the Finnish gambling market will be hopeful that the matter of the gambling agency can be resolved quickly, although it is clear now that a delay to its implementation is on the horizon.
