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Finland’s Parliamentary Committee on Social Affairs and Health (CSAH) supports licensing plans, but warns that the current proposal will increase gambling harms and social impacts.
The committee’s statement on the new Finnish Gambling Act proposal was sent to the Administration Committee on Wednesday (May 14).
It warns: “The new Gambling Act will significantly change the gambling system and increase gambling harms and the resulting social costs.”
However, the CSAH statement did not propose concrete changes and is unlikely to have a major impact on the proposed law.
Antti Koivula, a legal advisor with the law firm Legal Gaming, said the statement included a “list of well-founded observations” regarding gambling harm prevention, “which is entirely in line with their mandate”.
“Contrary to some reports in the domestic media, the committee did not directly propose any amendments to the new Gambling Act.
“Instead, they were content to merely emphasise that their concerns and observations should be taken into account during the legislative process,” he told Vixio GamblingCompliance.
Koivula said that during the parliamentary review, the bill will be examined by several sub-committees, each focusing on the text from their specific areas of expertise.
The Administration Committee will then consolidate the statements and decide on any proposed modifications before the bill is debated in Parliament, according to the lawyer.
The CSAH is the fifth committee to complete a review and submit a statement on the bill.
“Given the [CSAH's] political makeup and its strong emphasis on public health, it was widely anticipated that their statement would be the most critical among all committees,” Koivula said.
Koivula compared the CSAH response to asking a nutritionist to evaluate indulgent comfort food, and was surprised the tone wasn’t more severe.
“On the contrary, the committee acknowledged several provisions as positive from a harm reduction perspective and welcomed them accordingly,” he said.
SCAH recommendations
Provisions in the gambling law on licensing are on schedule to enter into force by January 1, 2026. Other changes would mainly come into force on January 1, 2027.
The CSAH wants a regulation on the prevention of harm in the act to be enforceable as soon as the new law enters into force, as well as powers such as payment and website blocking to prevent players from gambling on the black market.
A major hurdle the law still has to deal with is balancing player protection measures with the looming threat of low channelling rates after the bill opens up licensing, buoyed by a proposal to ban traditional affiliate marketing.
However, the CSAH suggests marketing should be restricted “much more strictly” than the current proposal, and outdoor advertising should be banned completely.
In the committee's view, the government’s law will also require an immediate follow-up project “in which the legislation as a whole must be developed in a direction that better emphasises the prevention and reduction of harm”, while focusing on young adults (18-24 years of age) as a group requiring “special protection”.
