A gambling company’s marketing prohibition enters into force after a court decision

On 19 February 2024, the Helsinki Administrative Court rejected BML Group Ltd.’s appeal regarding a prohibition on the marketing of gambling services imposed by the National Police Board and the conditional fine of EUR 2.4 million imposed to reinforce the prohibition. The National Police Board issued the decision on a prohibition, subject to the appeal, to the company on 20 April 2023. On 29 February 2024, the National Police Board added the company to the list of payment blocks. BML Group Ltd. is a subsidiary of Betsson AB.

Gambling involves financial, social and health-related harm, the prevention and reduction of which is the main goal of the Finnish gambling system. Illegal marketing targeted at Mainland Finland is a cause of such harm, and intervening in prohibited activities is a key part of the achievement of this goal in practice. 

- The decision issued by the Administrative Court is significant in many ways. Among other things, it underlines the fact that the marketing of gambling services targeted at Mainland Finland is still explicitly prohibited from all gambling operators other than Veikkaus Oy, the holder of exclusive rights. We will intervene in any illegal activities, and they may have serious consequences, says Johanna Syväterä, Senior Adviser at the National Police Board’s Gambling Administration. 

In its decision on a prohibition, the National Police Board saw that the company’s marketing targeted at Mainland Finland took place in the long term and in multiple channels, including podcast, blog and video content in Finnish. In addition, its marketing material featured Finnish ice hockey players and other Finnish individuals.

The company appealed against the decision to the Administrative Court, requesting it to be revoked. In its grounds for the appeal, the company claimed that the prohibition was not sufficiently specified and the conditional fine had not been imposed in accordance with the requirements laid down in the Act on Conditional Fines and the Administrative Procedure Act. In addition, the company saw that the decision was based on an incorrect interpretation of the Lotteries Act. The Administrative Court did not support the company’s views. 

On 29 February 2024, the National Police Board added the company to the list of payment blocks. Payment blocks prevent payments from players to such gambling operators that have obtained the National Police Board’s decision to prohibit marketing that is in violation of the Lotteries Act. 

The Administrative Court rejected the company’s appeal with its decision

The Administrative Court saw that the company’s banner advertising and the editorial material presented on the company’s website, as well as the sports betting tips linked to it, can be considered to be prohibited marketing as laid down in the Lotteries Act, especially if marketing is targeted at Finland and Finnish people. Therefore, the National Police Board can have regarded the company’s activities as marketing laid down in the Lotteries Act.

- The National Police Board considers this a positive decision. The Administrative Court’s decision supports our view that the current system allows to effectively intervene in illegal activities. The supervisory authority must have the tools and practical means required to prevent illegal activities and, as in this case, the ability to reinforce any prohibition by a hefty conditional fine if more moderate measures are insufficient, Syväterä says.   

According to the Administrative Court’s decision, it was evident that the measures mentioned in the decision concerned the marketing of gambling services and that the marketing activities were targeted at Finland and Finnish people. Therefore, the company was deemed to have violated the prohibition to provide gambling services as laid down in the Lotteries Act. The Administrative Court saw that the decision issued by the National Police Board was justified and specified in accordance with the Administrative Procedure Act.

With regard to the conditional fine, the Administrative Court saw that, in its decision subject to the appeal, the National Police Board specified the grounds for the amount of the fine and therefore fulfilled its obligation to provide sufficient grounds. Furthermore, no facts have been identified in the case, based on which there is reason to assume that the company would have been treated differently from other gambling operators when determining the amount of the conditional fine.

With the Administrative Court’s decision, the National Police Board’s prohibition entered into force and BML Group Ltd. was added to the National Police Board’s list of payment blocks. If the company continues to target its marketing of gambling services at Mainland Finland despite the prohibition, the National Police Board will take action to enforce the imposed conditional fine.

The company can request leave to appeal against the Administrative Court’s decision from the Supreme Administrative Court within 30 days of obtaining information about the decision, provided that the Supreme Administrative Court grants leave to appeal.

The gambling system in Mainland Finland is being reformed through a legislative project  

The Government Programme of Petteri Orpo’s Government defines that the gambling system in Mainland Finland will be partially opened up for competition no later than at the beginning of 2026. The objective of the reform defined in the Government Programme is to prevent and reduce financial, social and health-related harm caused by gambling and improve the channelling rate of the gambling system. The Ministry of the Interior’s legislative project (SM053:00/2023) is investigating the reform of the gambling system and preparing a Government proposal to achieve the objective. 

- Regardless of the ongoing regulatory preparation aimed to reform the system, the current system based on exclusive rights and the provisions governing it will remain in force, in every way, until the new act enters into force. Furthermore, the supervisory authority’s statutory duties laid down in the act, including intervening in illegal activities, will remain in force, and the objective of adopting a licence-based system does not provide any grounds for activities that are in violation of the current legislation, Syväterä notes.

- It is somewhat alarming that certain gambling operators that have previously stopped any marketing deemed illegal by the National Police Board seem to have again become active recently, possibly anticipating the system reform. There may be false and harmful assumptions that supervision would have been reduced due to the ongoing preparation of the legal amendment, and that illegal activities would have no consequences. The lawfulness of marketing activities is always the responsibility of the concerned party, and it is evident that illegal activities may even result in serious consequences, as indicated by the Administrative Court’s recent decision and the addition of the company to the list of payment blocks, says Syväterä. 

Further information and previous releases

More information about payment blocks is available on the poliisi.fi website at https://poliisi.fi/maksuliikenne-estot; https://poliisi.fi/en/blocking-payment-transactions

The National Police Board prohibited a gambling operator from marketing gambling services in Finland with a EUR 2.4 million conditional fine (16 May 2023): https://poliisi.fi/en/-/national-police-board-prohibits-gambling-operator-from-marketing-gambling-services-in-finland-with-eur-2.4-million-conditional-fine