Veikkaus to introduce new way for offering online lottery tickets

The government on Thursday issued a decree on the operation of the state-owned gambling company Veikkaus´s gambling games enabling Veikkaus to create a new way to run lotteries online.

The amended decree will enter into force on September 14 September, said the Ministry of the Interior in a press release.

Veikkaus will be able make use of the online lottery tickets provided by the Lotteries Entertainment Innovation Alliance AS (LEIA) joint venture.

Veikkaus set up a joint venture company with several other national gambling operators in 2018. In addition to Veikkaus, the company is owned by gambling operators from Sweden, Denmark, Norway and France. The company offers and develops online gambling games for its owners.

Veikkaus has not previously been able to make use of the company’s games because the technical platform used in the draw is located in France.

However, the Lotteries Act, which was amended in 2022, makes it possible to locate the game platforms used by Veikkaus outside Finland in the EU and EEA member states.

The decree also includes technical updates and amendments which, following the amendments to the Lotteries Act, were found to be necessary for applying the decree in practice with regard to running and supervising gambling.

During the amendments drafting, changing the maximum number of slot machines was also considered.

However, no change was made at this time. In practice, the change would not have affected the current situation where Veikkaus has voluntarily reduced the number of slot machines placed in shops, kiosks and public transport hubs.

According to the Government Programme, the transfer of game machines to separate controlled premises will be investigated.

Earlier on September 5, Veikkaus announced the beginning of co-determination talks with the view to cut jobs of up to 240 employees.