The National Police Board has prohibited the marketing of gambling by two different social media influencers in violation of the Lotteries Act.

Both prohibition decisions were served on the parties concerned in May 2025. One of the prohibitions entered into force in June. The enforcement of the other prohibition has been suspended, as the party concerned has appealed against it to the Administrative Court.

The National Police Board has assessed that the influencers have considerable financial interests to continue the marketing of gambling. This is why the National Police Board has intensified compliance with the prohibitions with the conditional imposition of a fine. The amount of each conditional fine is 30,000 euros. If the influencers continue to market gambling in mainland Finland despite the prohibitions, the National Police Board will take measures to enforce the payment of the conditional fine. 

The prohibitions issued by the National Police Board apply to content that either directly or indirectly markets gambling in mainland Finland in violation of the Lotteries Act. Compliance with the prohibitions requires that the gambling marketing content already published must be removed and that no new gambling marketing content must be published. 

In addition to the two prohibition decisions, the National Police Board has also ordered the payment of a conditional fine previously imposed on one social media influencer. The decision to enforce the payment of the conditional fine was served on the party concerned at the beginning of July.

According to the information available to the National Police Board, the party concerned has not appealed the decision within the statutory 30-day appeal period. 

The National Police Board found that a social media influencer who had previously been imposed prohibition on the marketing of gambling continued to market gambling despite the prohibition. For this reason, the National Police Board has ordered that the previously imposed conditional fine of 30,000 euros must be paid. 

The marketing of gambling carried out by all three influencers has taken place in several channels and over a long period of time, and it has been observed especially in the Twitch and Kick streaming services. They have marketed the gambling games of several non-Finnish gambling companies. In all three cases, the marketing has been carried out from outside Finland. 

“It seems to be a common misconception that the marketing of gambling in Finland from outside Finland would be allowed. However, this is not the case. Only Veikkaus Oy is allowed to market gambling in mainland Finland,” says Senior Adviser Tomi Sallinen. 

The influencers have done affiliate marketing of gambling companies, the purpose of which has been to attract consumers residing in mainland Finland as customers and thereby promote participation in gambling in Finland. The National Police Board considers that through their actions related to commercial co-operation, the influencers have increased the visibility of gambling, gambling websites and companies serving as intermediaries for gambling.