Participants were asked about strategies to fight unlicensed operators and whether overseas gambling offers are enticing players away from licensed domestic platform, Veikkaus.<\/p>\n
Finland is preparing for a complete overhaul of its gambling market<\/a>. The country is moving away from its longstanding monopoly model operated by Veikkaus towards a licensing framework<\/a> that will open parts of the market to private operators.\u00a0<\/p>\n Under the reform package, companies will be able to apply for licences from 2026 ahead of the regulated market launch scheduled for 1 July 2027. The poll also highlighted uneven public awareness of these reforms.<\/p>\n Key findings<\/p>\n The survey, conducted across Finland with respondents balanced by sex, age and region, found that 67% of participants were aware that gambling legislation changes are imminent. Awareness was notably higher among men (80%) compared to women (54%) and increased with age, rising to 71% among those aged 50-65. This was versus 63% of younger adults aged 18-34.<\/p>\n Regarding the reasons users choose unlicensed foreign gambling sites, only 30% of respondents agreed that more attractive bonuses and promotions are a factor. This was balanced by 41% who disagreed and 29% who were uncertain.\u00a0<\/p>\n Men (43%) were more likely to view bonuses as influential than women (18%). Younger respondents (18-34 years) showed slightly higher agreement (35%) than older age groups.<\/p>\n When asked which measures would be most effective in discouraging use of illegal gambling sites, opinions favoured blocking payments to these operators (32%). This was in addition to the enhancement of the appeal of licensed domestic offerings (26%).\u00a0<\/p>\n Technical measures such as internet protocol (IP) blocking were less well supported (11%), with nearly a third (29%) of respondents uncertain about the best approach.<\/p>\n Public perception of blacklisting illegal gambling sites was mixed. A plurality (43%) believed that a public blacklist would not prevent people from using the sites. But 24% thought it would with the remainder undecided.<\/p>\n Demographic variations<\/p>\n Men exhibited higher awareness of the reform and were more inclined to cite foreign site bonuses as a reason for user choice. Women tended to reject bonuses as a motivating factor.<\/p>\n Younger respondents displayed the greatest uncertainty across several questions and were somewhat more optimistic regarding the potential effect of blacklisting illegal sites (29% in favour among 18-34 year olds, compared to 23% overall). <\/p>\n Those from the greater Helsinki area accounted for around 30% of respondents, representing a larger share of higher income brackets. Respondents with higher incomes were more likely to believe foreign bonuses influence consumer behaviour.<\/p>\n The illegal market across Europe<\/p>\n The Finnish liberalisation process has been driven partly by concerns that the monopoly system was no longer effectively channelling Finnish consumers towards regulated offerings.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThe aim of the bill has been to find a regulatory solution in which the regulation combating gambling harms would be balanced with the fact that gambling companies want to apply for a licence and that online gambling would be directed to a regulated gaming offering,\u201d Minister of the Interior Mari Rantanen said during the bill\u2019s first passing through parliament.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Kathryn covers bitesize breaking news with a primary focus on EMEA and US legislation. A proud North Walian, fluent Welsh speaker and lifelong Wrexham FC fan \u2013 long before Hollywood came calling.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The survey also reported uneven public awareness of the upcoming reforms to the Finnish gambling market which will…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":598790,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[44],"tags":[3374,102,204448,1906,6623,204449,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-598789","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mental-health","tag-finland","tag-health","tag-illegal-gambling-market","tag-mental-health","tag-mentalhealth","tag-payment-blocks","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/598789","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=598789"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/598789\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/598790"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=598789"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=598789"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=598789"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Kathryn](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/bG9jYWw6Ly8vaWdhbWluZ2J1c2luZXNzLmNvbS93cC1jb250ZW50L3VwbG9hZHMvMjAyNi8wMy9rYXRocnluLWV2YW5zLXByb2Zp.webp\")
<\/a>Kathryn Evans<\/a><\/p>\n