Finland’s open gambling market draws 75 licence applications ahead of 1 July 2027 launch

Finland’s move away from Veikkaus’ monopoly is pulling in more applicants than officials expected: the National Police Board had received 75 licence applications by 22 September, up from 50 in June. For PSPs and acquirers, the simple takeaway is that the licensing funnel is busy now, but no one is through it yet.

1. Operators started submitting applications on 1 March, and each applicant must pay a processing fee of €29,000 ($33,500) for licences valid in 2026 before substantive evaluation begins. In other words, the paperwork is not the hard part on day one; the fee is.
2. The National Police Board said the review is still ongoing and no licences have been granted so far. The authority also said applicants’ “reliability and suitability” are assessed on the basis of submitted documents, which tells you the Finnish process is built around document-heavy due diligence before market entry is allowed.
3. The reform is designed to replace Veikkaus’ current gambling monopoly with a licensed market set to start on 1 July 2027. The first licences under the new framework will take effect from that date, and until then the National Police Board remains both the licensing and supervisory authority.
4. Industry researcher Janne Nikkinen of the University of Helsinki told Yle that earlier estimates had pointed to 40 to 60 applications and that those numbers were already considered optimistic. His comment that “Finland is attracting interest” is not exactly subtle, but the volume does show the market is drawing more demand than the original planning assumptions.
5. Veikkaus has already formed two subsidiaries and is restructuring its separately operated online business to compete with private operators entering the licensed market. The loss of monopoly has also reopened the old ownership question: SDP Party Secretary Mikkel Näkkäläjärvi said the state has “no particular strategic interest” in owning a gaming company, while Liike Nyt wants full privatisation and a stock-market listing; the Left Alliance is the only party mentioned as opposing any sale.

For high-risk payment firms, Finland now looks like a market where the commercial opportunity is clearly visible, but the operational gate remains tight. The licence count is rising, the regulator is still vetting applicants, and the market launch date is fixed, which is exactly the sort of timeline that forces PSPs, acquirers, and banks to map onboarding capacity before the first licences land.