Finland is debating a countrywide ban on all gambling marketing which is expected to pass as early as the autumn. The ban would outlaw “indirect advertising and other sales promotion activities”, including all sponsorship in exchange for the display of a brand’s logo. This would prevent gaming operators from sponsoring sports event or players, and from branding media such as beer mats or taxi cabs, even when no direct enticement to gamble is made.     

Finland’s national gambling market is said to be worth €2.2bn annually. The value of the overall market, which includes illegal betting with online operators, is unknown, although 41 % of Finns are understood to gamble on a weekly basis.

The legislation is being debated by the Finnish parliament and is expected to pass due to the widespread support in Finland for the country’s prohibitive gaming regulation. According to a survey in June 2008 by Veikkaus Oy, Finland’s state monopoly for betting and lottery, almost 82% of Finns support the present monopoly system.     

The ban is being proposed in response to EU pressure to rectify Finland’s position on the legality of its monopolies, and would affect both foreign operators and local gaming monopolies, including Veikkaus Oy; RAY, which operates casinos; and Finntoto, which runs horse betting.    

Despite challenges from the likes of Ladbrokes and Paf, the gambling company of Finland’s semi-autonomous Åland islands, Finnish courts have so far held that the monopolies do not violate EU law. However, the EU Commission filed an official complaint against Finland’s gambling regime in 2006 which is still pending.     

In rejecting an application by Ladbrokes for a local license in May 2007, the Finnish Supreme Administrative Court also noted that Veikkaus Oy’s marketing activities are “not without problems” under EU law, which provides that states may only market their monopolies to direct the inevitable demand for gambling toward the national operator, not to increase the overall demand for gambling. However the Court concluded that Veikkaus Oy’s ”problematic” behaviour can be remedied by amending the marketing regulations, leading the Finnish parliament to act.     

Pekka Takki, a gaming lawyer at the Helsinki office of law firm Bird & Bird, said: “In my opinion the present Finnish model can’t hold. But political opinion and public opinion here are always in support of the monopoly.”