Finnish online casinos for Real Money

Finland is a country where most forms of gambling are deemed legal. Make no mistake about it, though, Finland’s gambling industry is heavily regulated, and we do mean heavily. Both the online and land-based gambling sectors are run by monopolies, for instance. Veikkaus Oy (in Finland) and PAF (in the Åland Islands) are both state-run enterprises that have full control over gambling. Prior to the establishment of Veikkaus Oy (in 2017), RAY was in control of slot machines; Fintoto ran the horse racing industry, while Veikkaus ran the lottery side of things. They were merged to simplify the industry.

The Finnish Lotteries Act lays out the terms for legalising gambling in Finland, while the Gambling Department of the National Police Board (known as Arpajaishallinto) regulate, license, and monitor the monopolies. Online gambling is legal in Finland, but only if you choose to play at state-run gambling sites.

It is worth noting that Finns are not prosecuted for playing at offshore sites. However, Finland doesn’t approve of sites that are licensed outside of Finland catering to Finnish players. Apart from running a few blacklists (which haven’t really worked), there isn’t much the Finnish authorities can do about that.

Things used to be a lot more complicated in Finland than they are today. There used to be half a dozen monopolies crisscrossing all over the place. That changed in 2017 when Veikkaus Oy was formed to rule over all Finnish gambling-related activities, save for those based in Åland. These autonomous islands are run by Penningautomatförening (PAF) instead.

Finland protects its monopolies, even in the face of fierce frustration from the European Union. The structure of EU laws and directives imply that Finnish players are permitted to sign up and play at non-Finnish casinos if they want to, and the EU accommodates that by telling operators in other EU countries that if they aren’t permitted to obtain a Finnish gambling license, they don’t need to acquire one.

Of course, this causes a fair bit of needle between the two authorities. However, the bottom line is this – if Finns aren’t impressed with what the state-run monopolies have to offer, they don’t have to stick to them. They cannot be prosecuted for choosing to sign up and play at offshore casinos – something many choose to do. Gameplay is typically available in Finnish at the biggest sites, and the euro is one of the most widely accepted currencies in the world when it comes to online gambling.

As touched on, it is not the monopolies themselves who grant licenses. Arpajaishallinto (known as the Gambling Department of The National Police Board) is the only authority that can do this. Bingo and lottery games (to some degree) may be exempt from this, although it isn’t clear just how much leeway there is here.

Finland is home to virtually everything you might want to play. Finns love their slot machines, but they are also big fans of splashing the cash on sports betting options and table games. Generally, slots are where the action is at, and as mentioned, many of the biggest jackpot slot prizes have been won by players in Finland.

NetEnt’s slots tend to be the most popular in the country. Finnplay is one of the leading providers to come from the country, but their games only tend to appear at Finnish-licensed sites. Other notable developers to cater to Finnish players are Novomatic, Big Time Gaming, and Evolution Gaming, alongside Yggdrasil, Play ‘n Go and many other developers from across the border in Sweden.

Finnish casinos are supposed to only accept players based in Finland. There are in-depth KYC checks (via BankID-like options) to prevent non-Finns from playing at those sites. Of course, there are always ways around this, so we wouldn’t want to say that Finnish casinos are solely for Finns.

As for international sites, the so-called offshore casinos, there is plenty of wiggle room here. Few of them are exclusively catering to Finns alone, but most will accept Finnish players. These are not as tightly regulated as Finnish casinos (which may be a good or bad thing, depending on your point of view). They accept the euro, and some do go out of their way to please Finns by offering Finnish language gameplay.