Finland latest market to crack down on gambling advertising

Finland is the latest market taking an extremely dim view of gambling advertising, particularly when it competes with the local monopoly.

On Friday, Finnish news outlet YLE quoted local police and the Traficom telecom watchdog saying they’d teamed up to eliminate ‘illegal’ gambling advertising on local television and radio. Traficom warned media outlets that they could face cancellation of their broadcast licenses should they be found guilty of ‘repeatedly’ violating the advertising norms.

The ability to promote gambling products and services is limited to the state-run Veikkaus gambling monopoly. Earlier this month, Veikkaus warned that its future revenue was under threat from “tightening digital competition, where gaming is shifting strongly towards the digital channel.”

The government’s interest in restricting gambling ads comes just weeks after Finland’s National Institute for Health and Welfare (THL) publicly urged tighter regulations on gambling marketing. However, THL also called on Veikkaus’ marketing to be reined in, saying the firm’s slogans were “at odds with public health communication.” THL said gambling ads “should be consistent” and subject to rules governing “other harmful products” like tobacco and alcohol.