Police to block company payment for marketing of gambling services

The National Police Board (NPB) has decided to add a company named BML Group Ltd. to the list of payment blocks for marketing gambling service in Finland violating the Finnish Lotteries Act, said the NPB in a press release on Tuesday.

The decision was taken as the BML Group Ltd, a subsidiary of Betsson AB directly or indirectly promoted the sales of gambling services on its websites in Mainland Finland and the payment blocks will enter into force on June 3.

Earlier on April 7, 2023, NPB prohibited BML Group Ltd. from marketing its gambling services in Finland and imposed a EUR 2.4 million conditional fine to reinforce the prohibition.

The company has targeted Mainland Finland in its advertising on multiple channels and for an extensive period, said NPB.

The company and its subsidiaries have been presented with several opportunities to submit a statement on their views and to change their activities to comply with the views of the NPB.

During the hearing process, the company introduced some changes related to the marketing channels it uses for example, but the marketing targeting Mainland Finland has persisted regardless.

The police estimated that BML Group Ltd. has significant financial interest in continuing the activities and found that the illegal activities have continued for a long time regardless of the NPB’s previous control measures.

The NPB reviewed the measures undertaken by the company to reduce marketing, and they were considered a mitigating factor when the amount of the conditional fine was determined.

The prohibition covers all marketing communications targeting consumers in Mainland Finland, having Finnish celebrities as the face of a gambling service marketing campaign in a manner that is attractive to consumers, podcasts and video podcasts targeting Mainland Finland, and articles published with the aim of directly or indirectly promoting the sales of gambling services in Mainland Finland.

The prohibition also applies to marketing of BML Group Ltd.’s services on websites other than those owned and administered by the Group in a manner that involves the Group or its representative giving financial benefits to the marketer.

To comply with the prohibition, BML Group Ltd. must refrain from publishing new sales promotion material targeting Mainland Finland on its gambling websites, remove all previously published sales promotion material from them, and refrain from marketing on other websites in the future as well.

If BML Group Ltd. 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.

Payment blocks restrict outgoing payments from the player to those gambling companies that the National Police Board has given a decision on prohibitions to market gambling services in violation of the Lotteries Act.

Payment blocks for gambling services will enter into force at the beginning of 2023.

In October, 2021, the National Police Board (NPB) has initially imposed a conditional fine of EUR 800,000 on an international broadcaster Eurosport 1 television channel recently for marketing of gambling services in Finland.