Parties claim that regulatory framework controlling online gambling is not strong enough

Finland politicians call for online gambling review

2015-03-13
Reading time 1:09 min
Finland could be set for a crackdown on overseas online gambling operators after politicians and regulatory organizations called for a review of the country’s gambling market. Parties say that the regulatory framework controlling online gambling does not have the ability to protect consumers.

A recent study from YLE.fi says that Finish gamblers spend over €1.7 billion a year on internet gambling, which is one of the highest spending countries for online gambling in Europe.

Politicians say that the current laws do not regulate foreign online gambling sites enough in advertising and targeting their nationals in marketing campaigns and as such are damaging the revenues of state owned charity focused operators such as Raha-automaattiyhdistys (RAY), Veikkaus and Fintoto.

Timo Kiiskinen, Senior Vice President of Business Operations at RAY said, “It’s clear that often customers will take the best deal when they’re considering gambling, this causes quite a headache for us, and the authorities should look at the issue more closely.
“Many international gambling sites are very aggressive with their direct marketing. And they make no effort to care for their customers. They can, for example, promise new customers €100 bonuses when they register”

Interior Legislative Director Katrrina Laitinen said that her office would increase monitoring on internet gambling operators. Furthermore the director commented that the office was aware of which sites were actively targeting its national consumers.
Currently advertising by overseas online gambling operators is against the law in Finland but is bypassed using digital advertising techniques.

However the government has not stated that it will conduct a review of online gambling practices in the country, but it did say that whatever their decision it would not look at punishing their nationals for gambling online with overseas online gambling operators.

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