The Great Finnish Scratch Card Crisis: Can Gifting Survive the New Era of Player Tracking?
Finland is scrambling to fix a regulatory oversight that turned gifted scratch cards into worthless bits of cardboard, all while preparing for the biggest gambling market liberalisation in its history.
- The Ministry of the Interior has launched a formal study to rescue the tradition of gifting scratch cards to friends and family.
- Mandatory identification rules introduced in 2024 have made gift cards virtually impossible to redeem because prizes are tied to the buyer.
- This review coincides with the historic signing of the new Gambling Act which will eventually end the online monopoly of Veikkaus.
- Officials are examining how to allow prize redemption by third parties without compromising strict Finnish player safety standards.
- The findings are due by the end of March as Finland prepares for its transition to a competitive licensing market in 2027.
The Finnish government is currently investigating whether it can restore the beloved tradition of giving scratch cards as gifts without undermining its increasingly strict approach to player protection. This move comes at a pivotal moment for the nation as the new Gambling Act is set to fundamentally restructure the market and terminate the long-standing online monopoly held by Veikkaus.
The Ministry of the Interior has initiated a feasibility study to determine if prizes from scratch cards can be legally claimed by someone other than the original purchaser. This investigation will culminate in an assessment memorandum which will serve as a foundation for potential changes to secondary legislation and regulatory procedures.
Officials are attempting to solve a practical dilemma that began when scratch cards were included in the mandatory identification regime at the start of 2024. Since that time, any card bought as a gift has essentially become a novelty item with no financial value to the recipient. Under current rules, only the person who provides their identity at the point of sale is permitted to collect any winnings.
These identification requirements were phased in across the entire Veikkaus portfolio following updates to the Lotteries Act in 2022. The goal was to bolster harm prevention measures. Identity checks were already standard for slot machines and popular draw games like Lotto but extending them to scratch cards made the Finnish monopoly one of the only operators in the world to require identification for every single product, whether sold online or in a physical shop.
Veikkaus has long maintained that these checks are vital for preventing underage gambling and supporting tools like self exclusion. According to the company, the data gathered allows for better monitoring of risky behaviour and helps create a safer environment for all participants. However, the unintended consequence has been the death of the scratch card as a birthday or Christmas present.
This study is taking place against a backdrop of massive industry change. On 16 January 2026, President Alexander Stubb signed the new Gambling Act into law. This legislation establishes a two track model where online gambling will move to a competitive licensing system while lotteries and land based casinos remain under state control. The timeline is ambitious, with licence applications opening on 1 March 2026 and the market fully opening in July 2027.
The current project will explore how the Lotteries Act and the new Gambling Act can be adjusted to allow for prize transfers. Experts have already suggested that the rules need to be more flexible to reflect how people use these products in real life. The ministry will also look at the technical structure of instant win tickets and check for any potential conflicts with European Union competition laws or internal market regulations. With a deadline of 31 March, the clock is ticking for officials to find a solution that satisfies both the public and the regulators.
The situation in Finland perfectly illustrates the delicate balancing act between robust player protection and the practical realities of consumer behaviour. For a decade, I have watched regulators across Europe tighten the screws on player tracking, but Finland has gone further than almost anyone else by mandating identity checks for every single retail transaction. While the intent to curb problem gambling is noble, the total elimination of the gifting culture for scratch cards shows what happens when policy is designed in a vacuum without considering social norms.
The timing of this study is no coincidence. As Veikkaus prepares to lose its exclusive grip on the online market in 2027, the state is keen to ensure that the remaining monopoly products like scratch cards do not lose their commercial appeal. If the utility of a product is halved because it cannot be given away, the revenue for the state will inevitably suffer. This review is as much about protecting the future viability of the state lottery as it is about helping a grandmother buy a card for her grandson.
Looking ahead, the outcome of this Finnish experiment will be a blueprint for other jurisdictions. If the Ministry of the Interior can find a way to verify the age of a gift recipient at the point of redemption without creating a massive loophole for money laundering or excessive play, they will have solved a major headache for retail gambling. The industry is watching closely to see if Finland can prove that high level player protection and traditional gift giving can actually coexist in a modern regulated framework.
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Why This Matters
iGaming Times analysis: Player-tracking requirements applied to traditionally anonymous lottery products are the cleanest expression of how Finnish responsible-gambling policy is overriding gifting norms that have shaped the category for decades. The interesting cultural question is whether Veikkaus retains the lottery-product cultural-anchor role through the transition or whether the friction migrates customer behaviour into adjacent product types. The policy choice rebalances the entire product mix in a way that international operators evaluating Finnish entry need to model carefully.
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