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Finland’s National Police Board (NPB) has revealed that Veikkaus advertised more than 200 times during 2023 and 2024 on family-oriented and weekend morning TV shows, sparking the recent enforcement action against it.
Earlier this week, Veikkaus announced it was threatened with a €2.9m conditional fine and issued with a three-month-long advertisement ban.
The NPB said it sent a notice to Veikkaus regarding marketing games to minors on television in May 2024, but supervision revealed that the company had “continued its illegal activities”.
Veikkaus claims it responded to the request and adjusted its operations in cooperation with the NPB; however, the company admitted to a “wrongly placed advertisement” in its announcement earlier this week. It did not detail the number of violations flagged by the NPB.
It has now emerged that the police board cited more than 200 instances where gambling ads had been broadcast around children's programming.
However, Veikkaus said it disagrees with that figure. The operator said its view on the matter “is that number of 200 is concerning the NPB’s new interpretation of marketing in TV programmes”.
“The NPB did not communicate that interpretation before their decision last week. Veikkaus will continue the discussions with the authorities about the interpretation and the possible ramifications,” a Veikkaus spokesperson told Vixio GamblingCompliance.
Laura Rinne, the NPB chief inspector, said preventing problems caused by gambling is the “key objective” of Finland’s gambling regulation, which in “its core lies the protection of minors”.
Rinne told Vixio GamblingCompliance that “Veikkaus can, by application, bring the matter before the Market Court for review within 30 days of being informed of the decision”.
The monopoly operator was informed of the decisions on November 10, with the advertising ban scheduled to start on December 10.
If Veikkaus continues to violate advertising rules, the NPB can apply to the Market Court to impose the conditional fine.
Antti Koivula, a legal advisor with the Finnish law firm Legal Gaming, explained that the NPB has “initiated administrative proceedings against Veikkaus every year, but with only a few exceptions, these have not led to concrete sanctions”.
“It is encouraging to see the NPB finally taking a firm stand against gambling marketing targeted at minors, as they have refused to let Veikkaus’ long-term practice of running more than 200 ads aimed at minors go unpunished,” Koivula said.
