Finland Flouts EU Online Gambling Directives

No sooner does one European Union (EU) member state tow the line in terms of following the online gambling directives as laid down by the European Commission (EC), then another seems to raise its rebellious head, looking to go against the EC online gambling trade agreements, Finland being the latest.

Recent reports have emerged that the small Scandinavian country has blatantly gone against EC online gambling directives, and is intent on violating EU laws by seeking to ban the marketing of all online gambling within its borders. Currently, the Finnish Government allows the advertising of state lotteries and betting.

But that could all change if the Government gets its way. Under a new proposal, Finland would seek to prevent the marketing and advertising of all online gambling-related services, which includes banning everything from main stream advertising to the valuable and high-profile sponsorships of sports teams in the country.

Said one anonymous online gambling industry expert, 'On the face of it, it may appear that this is Finland's way of complying with the trade agreement as set down by the EU, but on a deeper level it is nothing more than a clever way to prevent online gambling firms based outside of Finland to operate in the country.'

One leading online gambling firm, UK-based Ladbrokes, is fed up with EU countries that are stubbornly refusing to level the online gambling playing field for online gambling companies based in fellow EU states. In fact, the firm is reportedly seeking legal retribution against Finland for denying it a gambling license in 2007.

Ladbrokes is claiming that it was denied an online gambling license two years ago because Finland was still in the throws of protecting its state-owned gambling monopoly at the time. According to Ladbrokes, Finland's draconian monopoly was protected by non other than the Finnish Supreme Administrative Court.

While the UK is leading the way in terms of legalized and regulated online gambling practices in the EU, and allows online gambling advertising and marketing, countries like Finland and Spain seem only to happy to continue to drag their feet and flout the policies laid down by the EC regarding online gambling.