Marketing of gambling

In accordance with the Lotteries Act,‘marketing’ refers to all marketing, indirect marketing and other sales promotion activity. For example, the use of the logo of a gambling company or a gambling service when advertising another product may constitute indirect advertising.
Prohibited marketing includes, for example, the use of hashtags referring to a gambling company, showing the logo of a gambling company or other promotional activity of gambling services. Commercial cooperation with a gambling company can also meet the definition of marketing in the Lotteries Act.

Only Veikkaus Oy is allowed to market itself and its gambling services, subject to the restrictions of the Lotteries Act. All other marketing of gambling services, or such marketing by others, is prohibited in Mainland Finland.

Marketing is considered to target Finland, if it aims to promote the participation of customers in Finland in gambling services. A crucial aspect in the assessment is the overall impression of marketing. For example, the Finnish language used in marketing indicates that marketing is targeted at Finland. It should be noted, however, that marketing carried out in English might also target Finland, as English is a commonly known language in Finland.

 Marketing targeting Finland includes marketing gambling services at events held in Finland, marketing carried out in websites targeted at Finnish consumers, and social media marketing targeted at Finnish audience. A common way to target marketing at Finland is to use expressions, symbols and persons known by Finnish consumers. 

No, it is not. Marketing gambling services on your own social media channels is prohibited by the Lotteries Act. Only Veikkaus Oy is allowed to market in social media, subject to certain restrictions. Veikkaus Oy can carry out influencer marketing only on Veikkaus Oy’s own social media channels and websites. It is not allowed to use the social media channels of influencers, collaboration partners, specialists or content providers in Veikkaus Oy’s marketing.

No, they are not. Partner or affiliate marketing is subject to the same rules as other marketing of gambling services. Usually, the administrator of an affiliate site gets some compensation for games played via a link on the site, and other similar type of cooperation is used, which is why such activities are considered as marketing in violation of the Lotteries Act.

No, it is not. Marketing gambling services is prohibited, regardless of the place of residence or the country, if marketing is targeted at Mainland Finland or those living in Mainland Finland. National Police Board can intervene in marketing of gambling services even if the marketer lives abroad.

No, it is not. Changing the language cannot be used to evade the marketing prohibition laid down in the Lotteries Act.

No, it is not. A foreign gambling licence does not entitle the holder to market gambling services in Mainland Finland. Furthermore, operating a gambling website under a foreign domain name or, for example, running or managing the site’s servers from abroad is not sufficient to legally market gambling services in Mainland Finland.

Only Veikkaus Oy is allowed to market gambling services in Mainland Finland. For other operators, it is prohibited to market gambling services targeted at Mainland Finland. This also applies to direct marketing. If someone other than Veikkaus Oy carries out direct marketing targeted at you, you can report it by email at arpajaishallinto@poliisi.fi and provide as accurate information as possible with possible attachments.

If you think that an operator has collected or processed your personal information in violation of EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) or national law without your consent, you can contact the Office of the Data Protection Ombudsman: https://tietosuoja.fi/en/home.

 Disclosure of name and address information from the Population Information System can be prohibited using an identity card or online banking credentials in Digital and Population Data Services Agency’s ‘Check your register data’ service at https://www.suomi.fi/your-data/personal-data or by notifying Digital and Population Data Services Agency of the matter by phone or letter. See instructions at https://dvv.fi/tietojen-luovuttamisen-kieltaminen (in Finnish). 

You can prohibit the disclosure of your address and submit a marketing restriction by contacting Traficom electronically or by phone https://www.traficom.fi/en/services/how-prohibit-disclosure-your-data.

 You can try to contact the customer service of the online casino to prohibit direct marketing. It is not recommended to click on the “unsubscribe from list”, “stop”, “unsubscribe” or similar links in marketing communications due to the risk of malware or phishing. 

You can contact your own telephone operator and notify them of the gambling marketing targeted at your own telephone subscription.