Laiton toimeenpano ja markkinointi

In addition to Finnish-language sports and betting news, a website operated abroad contained Finnish gambling advertisements that were freely visible to everyone and had direct links to various foreign gambling websites provided in the Finnish language. The foreign website had also been a partner in Finnish sports events, gaining visibility not only for itself, but also for the gambling advertisements published on the website.

Although the website, the server and the company that officially operated the website were located outside Finland, the website produced content in Finnish, which was mainly targeted at Finnish nationals. For these reasons, the National Police Board concluded that consumers living in Finland were in fact the website’s main target audience. Since targeting Finland and Finnish consumers in the marketing of gambling services, regardless of the method used, plays a key role in the assessment of the illegality of marketing, and since it is not permitted to circumvent the ban on the marketing of gambling services provided in the Lotteries Act, and marketing from abroad does not make the marketing permissible under the Lotteries Act, the website’s location outside Finland was deemed to have no bearing in the assessment of the illegality of the marketing.

The marketing of foreign gambling operators and other gambling operators than those defined in the Lotteries Act and the marketing of the gambling services offered by them are prohibited if such marketing targets Finland or consumers living in Finland. By its decision, the National Police Board prohibited the company maintaining the website to market gambling services in the advertisements on the company’s website. To enforce compliance with the prohibition decision, the National Police Board imposed a notice of a conditional fine, which would be payable in the event of non-compliance with the prohibition.

A gambling site was advertised on the side a vehicle belonging to a business. The gambling company advertised on the side of the vehicle provided gambling services on Finnish websites, which meant that gambling services were provided in Finland. This kind of marketing of gambling operators or gambling services is in violation of the Lotteries Act because only parties specifically regulated by the Lotteries Act may market gambling and even then, subject to the limits and conditions laid down in the Act.

Because the marketing of foreign gambling operators and other gambling operators than those defined in the Lotteries Act and the marketing of the gambling services offered by them are prohibited if such marketing targets Finland or consumers living in Finland, the National Police Board decided to prohibit the business from marketing a gambling site on the side of the vehicle. 

To enforce compliance with the prohibition decision, the National Police Board imposed a notice of a conditional fine, which would be payable in the event of non-compliance with the prohibition.

Veikkaus gambling services were marketed to customers at store checkouts without the customers spontaneously expressing interest in the gambling services. A large volume of marketing material on Veikkaus gambling products and Veikkaus gambling services was also placed around the checkout area.

Advertising by a gambling services monopoly must be moderate and strictly limited to what is necessary to guide consumers towards permitted forms of gambling. In contrast to other marketing, the purpose of gambling marketing must not be to increase demand, and the marketing may not include aggressive sales promotions. Consumers may not be encouraged to actively gamble by making gambling an everyday activity, for example by linking it to daily shopping. Furthermore, the abundant marketing material on gaming was not justified from the point of view of preventing gambling harm and promoting responsible marketing.

According to the National Police Board, Veikkaus gambling marketing was aggressive and its key purpose was to increase the demand for gambling. Veikkaus gambling marketing was considered as a whole to be in violation of the marketing restrictions laid down in the Lotteries Act. For these reasons, the National Police Board decided to prohibit Veikkaus from verbally marketing its gambling services or marketing them in certain areas, such as the store checkouts. To enforce compliance with the prohibition decision, the National Police Board imposed a notice of a conditional fine, which would be payable in the event of non-compliance with the prohibition.

A company organised various sports-related games on its website, in which players created their own fictitious teams with the players from real-life sports teams and competed against teams created by other players for monetary prizes, among other things.

According to the Lotteries Act, a lottery is defined as an activity in which participants must pay a charge for participating and can win prizes of monetary value based entirely or in part on chance. Gambling is a form of lottery where you can win money.

As participation in the games required the participants to pay a charge, winning was at least partly based on chance and the games awarded monetary prizes, the games were included in the gambling services referred to in the Lotteries Act, and their provision was prohibited under the same Act. The games were not excluded from the scope of the Lotteries Act as competitions based solely on skill or knowledge that would not involve any chance. For these reasons, the National Police Board prohibited the company from carrying out sports-related games classified as gambling in such a way that the participants would need to pay a charge for them or that they could win money from them.  To enforce compliance with the prohibition decision, the National Police Board imposed a notice of a conditional fine, which would be payable in the event of non-compliance with the prohibition.