The future of Zimpler in the upcoming new casino market in Finland

Finland has long been an incredibly active market for online casino gaming. Despite having a state-run monopoly on all gambling, Finns still enjoy going online to sample what is on offer in other parts of the global internet gaming community.

Now, though, the winds of change are blowing in the air in Finland as the government is looking to open its market to outside iGaming companies. In this article, we take a deeper look into what is going on. In the process, we also go over what could happen to Zimpler—a popular online casino payment method—when Finland begins to regulate.

New system coming in 2027

For many years, there were rumblings about how the Finnish gambling monopoly probably could not hold together much longer. In June 2023, it was officially made known that Finland was going to move away from a purely state-run gambling system. This was mostly due to a vast number of Finns opting to play online regardless of politicians and other similar public figures advising against it.

A monopoly with holes in it is not much of a monopoly. This is what ultimately made the government decide to bring all the outside companies under the same umbrella as the state-owned Veikkaus. Fast forward around 12 months, and we now know that Finland is about to start regulating at the start of 2027.

In the span of around 27 months, the powers that be are aiming to create a new, robust online casino licensing system that will hopefully please all the parties involved: the state, the customers, and the outside gambling companies.

Delicate wait time is on

At the moment, many online casino companies outside of Finland, as well as those simply affiliated with the industry, are holding their breath. This also includes companies like Zimpler, which we will get into soon. Playing at a Zimpler casino is a common choice for many Finnish players.

Currently, no one has a full picture of what the new Finnish gambling system is going to look like. Even so, there are many corporations that have a lot of money riding on what is going to happen.

One of the biggest questions still left unanswered is whether online casinos will be able to provide their players with welcome bonuses such as deposit bonuses and free spins. Traditionally, the Finnish monopoly has never offered such perks to its customers

In fact, Finland has long wrestled with a high prevalence of gambling-related problems. Many have criticized the government for its too-relaxed take on responsible gambling and the countless slot machines that fill the lobbies of supermarkets all around the country. In the past few years, some effort has been taken to reduce the number of said machines, but they are still more or less everywhere that players want to access them.

If the new licensing system does not allow outside companies to offer bonuses to their customers, this might lessen their desire to enter the Finnish market altogether. If so, some companies might choose to continue offering games to Finnish players under the Malta Gaming Authority license or the Estonian Tax and Customs Board license.

Zimpler and other payment systems in peril

Is it not yet known what payment methods will be available under the new Finnish license. There is a chance that companies such as Zimpler, Trustly, and Brite will be excluded and therefore miss out on massive amounts of revenue. On top of this, the draft legislation for the gambling system already hinted at the government potentially going after payment services that allow payments to casino companies outside of the new system.

In Finland’s neighboring country Sweden, the local gaming authority Spelinspektionen is also entangled in a lawsuit against Zimpler for similar reasons. For now, Zimpler has been able to hold its own in court, but Spelinspektionen has already appealed a case that it lost over the Summer of 2024.

Conclusion

No one knows what the future holds for the new Finnish licensing system. There are still more than two years before the system will be implemented.

The Finnish government is currently going over all the feedback it has gotten for its first draft of the new legislation. Whether any criticism will be taken into account remains to be seen, but there is clearly a lot at stake both financially and in other ways.

We will continue to monitor the situation.

Disclaimer: Players must be 18 years + to partake in any gambling, betting or casino activity. Players are urged to seek help if they require it. Players play at their own risk.