Player Protection in Finland
Registration, identification, deposit limits and self-exclusion under the current and new gambling frameworks
Last verified: 2026-09-28
Finland requires identified gambling and an 18+ age limit today, and will add gambling-company deposit limits, a national self-exclusion register and behaviour-monitoring duties for licence holders once the Gambling Act applies from 1 July 2027.
Player Protection in Finland
Overview
Finland's minimum gambling age is 18 under both the current Lotteries Act and the new Gambling Act. Under the current framework, mandatory identification has been phased in gradually: dispersed slot machines from January 2022, lottery coupon games such as Lotto and Eurojackpot from May 2023, and scratch cards from the start of 2024, so that essentially all Veikkaus gambling is now played identified.
From 1 July 2027, all gambling will require registration and identity verification. Players will set their own daily and monthly limits on funds transferred into each gambling company's player account, and licence holders must monitor gambling behaviour on an ongoing basis, let players review a year of account activity, and keep a written self-supervision plan. A national self-exclusion register will let a player exclude themselves from all licensed gambling on one platform, alongside company-level exclusion from specific games and a quick-stop feature; the Government may also set maximum daily, monthly and annual loss limits by decree, though the Ministry's public guidance does not state that such limits have yet been adopted. The Ministry of Social Affairs and Health and the Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare (THL) will get access to pseudonymised gambling data to guide harm-prevention work, which is funded from the state Budget.
Registration, identification, deposit limits and self-exclusion under the new Act. [1]
Minimum gambling age
Set in the 2010 Lotteries Act reform and carried into the Gambling Act.
Phase-in of mandatory identification under the current Lotteries Act. [2]
Key facts
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Under the Gambling Act the minimum age for gambling remains 18, and all gambling will require player registration and identification, including verification of age.
Sisäministeriö (Ministry of the Interior), Valtioneuvosto / Finlex
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Licence holders must run gambling so as to minimise gambling harm, including preventing excessive gambling through ongoing monitoring of gambling behaviour; they must let players review funds and transactions in their player account for the past year, provide a function for assessing gambling behaviour, and keep a written self-supervision plan.
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Players will personally set a daily and a monthly limit on the funds they may transfer into their player account with each gambling company.
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A self-exclusion register will let a player exclude themselves from all licensed gambling games on a single platform; companies must also allow exclusion from specific games or game categories, a quick-stop feature will interrupt all gambling, and marketing may not be directed at people in the register.
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The Government can issue a decree setting daily, monthly and annual maximum loss limits per gambling company, and the Ministry of the Interior can issue lower-level rules on the characteristics of gambling games to prevent harm; the Ministry's Q&A does not state that such loss limits have been adopted.
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The Ministry of Social Affairs and Health and the Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare (THL) will have access to pseudonymised gambling data to prevent and reduce harm, and harm-prevention work in the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health's branch will be funded from the state Budget, with discretionary government grants available.
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Under the current framework all Veikkaus gambling is played identified: mandatory identification applied to dispersed slot machines from 1 January 2022, to lottery coupon games (such as Lotto and Eurojackpot) from May 2023 and to scratch cards from the start of 2024.
Valtioneuvosto / Finlex, Sisäministeriö (Ministry of the Interior)
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Under the current framework the minimum age for all gambling is 18, set in the 2010 Lotteries Act reform, and gambling may not be sold to under-18s.
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The national gambling-harm helpline Peluuri, funded by Veikkaus under a cooperation agreement and run by the Blue Ribbon Association (Sininauhaliitto) and the A-Clinic Foundation, complements public treatment services; responsibility for treatment of gambling problems lies with the wellbeing services counties.
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In the same 2023 survey, 9% of respondents gambled at low-risk level and 4.2% at moderate-risk or problem-gambling level (PGSI 3 or more), up from 3% in 2019; problems were clearly more common among men than women.
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The draft decree on gambling in the competitive market includes provisions on the maximum permitted stakes for online casino games and on the features of online slot machine games; the draft government decree would reduce the maximum number of gambling venues and of slot machines and casino games in venues and casinos of the exclusive licence holder.
Sources
- Sisäministeriö (Ministry of the Interior)Primary source — Questions and answers on gambling system reform — https://intermin.fi/en/projects/reform-of-the-gambling/questions-and-answers
- Valtioneuvosto / FinlexPrimary source — HE 16/2025 vp: Hallituksen esitys eduskunnalle uutta rahapelijärjestelmää koskevaksi lainsäädännöksi — https://data.finlex.fi/api/media/government-proposal/904588/mainPdf/main.pdf