Finland is entering a new era for iGaming

After decades as a state monopoly, Finland is moving towards a licensed online gambling market. Licence applications opened on 1st of March 2026, and licensed operations are expected to begin on 1 July 2027.

What's New

The reform will open online betting, online casino and related digital gambling products to licensed operators. Certain products, including lotteries, scratch cards and land-based games, will remain under the existing state monopoly.

For operators, this creates a major commercial opportunity. For compliance, AML and responsible gambling teams, it creates a new operational reality.

What Finland’s market opening means operationally

Finland’s reform is designed to channel gambling activity into a supervised licensed market, strengthen oversight and reduce gambling-related harm. Operators preparing for Finland should therefore not only think about market access. They need to prepare their AML and affordability processes to be compliant with regulations whilst being scalable.

There are also clear parallels with the wider Nordic regulatory direction. Sweden and Denmark have already moved from monopoly-led models into licensed competitive markets, and Finland is now following.

That does not mean the Finnish framework is identical to Sweden’s, and operators should not assume a copy-paste regulatory model. But from an operational perspective, many of the same challenges are likely to appear: stronger supervision, higher expectations on risk-based monitoring, more pressure on documentation quality and a need to balance compliance controls with a low-friction player experience.

The challenge with manual review

Sweden has already shown where this can lead in practice. As regulatory scrutiny increases, manual Source of Funds and enhanced due diligence processes can quickly become a bottleneck. Collecting payslips, bank statements and supporting documentation often creates significant friction in the player journey, leading to slower reviews, increased operational workload and higher player drop-off. Reviewing documentation consistently, fast enough and at scale only adds further complexity for compliance teams.

This is where Open Banking is becoming increasingly relevant for Source of Funds and affordability assessments.

By using structured bank transaction data directly from the source, operators can move away from manual document collection toward faster and more consistent financial verification processes. Instead of uploading documents manually, players can securely connect their bank account and complete the verification flow in just a few steps, creating a smoother and less disruptive experience.

This automates Source of Funds reviews and affordability assessments and supports enhanced due diligence processes and ongoing risk-based monitoring. Key is that the overall player experience is improved leading to higher conversion. In our latest whitepaper on Finland’s new iGaming regulation, we explore how Open Banking can underpin both onboarding and ongoing financial risk assessment in practice.

Financial insight beyond AML

For AML teams, Open Banking-based financial insight can mean better visibility into income, account activity and transaction behaviour.
For responsible gambling teams, financial insight can also support broader player protection strategies, especially when combined with behavioural indicators and internal risk triggers.

For operators entering Finland, the key question is not only “Can we get licensed?”

It is: Can we operate compliantly, at scale, with controls that are robust enough for regulators and smooth enough for customers?

How Kreditz can help

Kreditz is already active in Finland and supports operators with PSD2-based financial insight, including Source of Funds, Source of Wealth, affordability assessments and ongoing behavioural monitoring where required. Our solutions are designed to help operators meet strict requirements while keeping onboarding fast with minimal friction.

As Finland moves towards a regulated multi-operator market, the strongest operators will not simply be the ones that launch first. They will be the ones that build trust, compliance and player protection into their operating model from day one.

Discover more in our whitepaper

Would you like to dive deeper into what this means in practice? Download our whitepaper “Navigating Finland’s New iGaming Regulation” and see how real-time financial data can enable compliance without compromizing user experience.