Norway, Portugal and Finland move on gambling policy as licensing talks and applications gather pace

Three European markets made the week’s gambling-policy watchlist: Norway’s Progress Party kept pushing for a licensing model, Portugal said it will move against unlicensed online gambling, and Finland’s licensing process drew nearly 50 applications. For PSPs and acquirers, the common thread is simple: when a market starts talking seriously about licensing or enforcement, payment routing and merchant risk change with it.

1. In Norway, Himanshu Gulati of the Progress Party repeated the party’s position that the state monopoly on gambling should end. He said a change in government could open the door to a licensing model, and described gambling licensing as the party’s “most important cultural political issue”.The Progress Party has backed a regulated licensing system since 2021, aimed at replacing the current state-controlled setup dominated by Norsk Tipping and Norsk Rikstoto. Gulati also criticised the current assumptions around gambling harms and revenue, and called for a broader debate on gambling policy.
2. Portugal’s Minister of Economy, Manuel Castro Almeida, said the government will introduce legislation to deal with unlicensed online gambling. The package is expected to cover oversight, sanctions, prevention and awareness, with stakeholders invited to submit proposals.The government put the value of illegal gambling in Portugal at €24bn. Alongside the legislative push, a new awareness campaign has been launched with several organisations to educate the public, especially younger audiences, about the risks of illegal online gambling and fraudulent schemes.
3. The Portuguese gaming regulator has also introduced a new self-exclusion platform for online gambling. For operators and payment providers, that matters because self-exclusion tools tend to become part of the operating minimum once regulators start tightening the screws on unlicensed activity.
4. In Finland, the National Police Board has received nearly 50 applications for online gambling licenses since the process opened on March 1. Most applicants are international operators, which adds complexity to the review process.The board says it aims to complete reviews within six months, checking reliability and suitability. Finland’s regulated online gaming market is scheduled to open in July 2027, ending Veikkaus’s monopoly.

For high-risk payments teams, these are the kinds of policy shifts that matter before the headline market opens. Norway is still a political debate, Portugal is moving into enforcement and awareness, and Finland already has a licensing queue to process ahead of a 2027 launch.