With an estimated 40% of Finns gambling weekly and the local
(legal) gambling market said to be worth EUR 2.2 billion Finland has since the
inception of online gambling been a popular target market for operators.
But it's also a market that the government is very keen to protect from foreign
operators. For some time now the government has imposed restrictions on
foreign operators from advertising while aggressively marketing their government
run local monopoly, Veikkaus Oy.
It's an approach that saw the European Commission begin
infringement proceedings against Finland back in 2006 on the basis that their
online gambling laws were protectionist in nature and a violation of EU free
trade obligations. While the EC has yet to take the matter to the European
Court of Justice, pressure on Finland regarding its current laws may well be the
catalyst behind a recent proposal to ban advertising of all forms of gambling -
including that of the local monopoly operator.
This approach will certainly level the playing field somewhat
and perhaps appease the powers that be at the EC and ECJ, however the exact
nature of the new laws and how they will be received was at the time of writing
not known.
In any case, at lease one operator that we know of currently
offers live dealer games and services tailored to the Finnish playing market.
The only live dealer casino listed on this site offering Suomi language
support and Euro (EUR) banking capabilities:
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