How will the upcoming parliamentary elections in Finland affect the gambling monopoly?

In Finland, the left-wing parties have traditionally been pro-monopoly minded already for ideological reasons and gambling makes no exception to this, which has been strongly reflected to the recent statements of the left-wing MPs. When it comes to gambling monopoly specifically, also Kesk has shown strong and steady support to it. Considering the parties included in the Finnish Government, it was no surprise that it was written down in the current Government Programme that the gambling monopoly will be strengthened. As a result, the Lotteries Act was amended in the beginning of this year to include, among other things, PSP blocking starting from 2023.

The parliamentary elections will take place in Finland in April 2023 and the biggest party will get the PM’s seat and the mandate to form the Government. Currently, the National Coalition Party (“Kok”) is leading the polls with a considerable margin. Kok is a right-wing party supporting market liberalism and they oppose monopolies, in general, for ideological reasons. In the past they have made an exception with the Finnish gambling monopoly as it has benefitted them too but now as the proceeds of the monopoly have decreased considerably and the general support to the monopoly among Finns is in decline, Kok has publicly noted that they are not anymore committed to the existing gambling monopoly in Finland. While no other party has openly taken stand against the Finnish gambling monopoly, it seems that the monopoly’s support has generally fallen to a point in which preserving it is not a threshold issue anymore for most parties (except perhaps for the left-wing parties i.e., SDP and Vas). Many MPs across the political field have openly expressed the need to at least investigate other options available in addition to the current monopoly system.
If (as it seems) Kok will win the parliamentary elections in Finland in April in 2023, it is very much possible that Finland will finally start a shift towards a licensing regime or at least openly start discussions about it on the political level. 

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