How Brexit is Impacting Gambling in the EU

We’re all starting to see the effects of Brexit, particularly if you live in the UK. Reports of higher postage costs to send things abroad, companies charging more to send goods and as reported in suomenkielisetnettikasinot.com a change in gambling regulations are starting to come through since Brexit was announced and finalised. Although lots of these changes were expected, no one could really foresee exactly the impact it would have, especially on everyday things such as shopping or signing up to an online casino. Of course, the impact and change in rules is very different in every county, but Finland are one country that is seeing a reform of its Lottery Act, the gambling legislation that is documented for their country.

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What Changes Are Coming

Although there is talk of various changes and impacts, one thing that seems to be coming through strongly is talk of the Government being keen to strengthen Veikkaus’ , the Finland lottery and its exclusive right to gambling in the country. Currently, online casinos can get around this by using a loophole where they are hosted outside of the country, which has been allowed. It is thought that under the next reform of the Finnish gambling legislation they will put in steps to stop online deposits being made to online casinos and as such, stop people being able to withdraw winnings from online casinos too!

What Does This Mean for Online Casinos?

Online casinos are certainly around for good and there are many countries both within and outside of the EU that allow online casinos to operate in full. However, for countries like Finland where the new lottery law could be in place by the summer, things may well have to change for those that want to continue playing casino games online.

One theory is that although the facility to send and receive money in order to use an online casino will be blocked, there will be no punishment for those that are able to work out a way around this. Therefore, you will be able to play legally at Finnish-language casinos; you just may need to consider how you are going to fund your account.

There are different ways that you can do this – for example, you could use a casino that doesn’t require you to register and perhaps use an e-wallet provider such as Skrill or Neteller to manage the funding part of your online casino account. The popularity of cryptocurrency is also on the rise and more casinos are starting to accept this as a payment method, so that may also be one way to fund an account and allow you to continue using an online casino even if you live in Finland. You might even be able to set up an online or foreign bank account just to use for online casinos as another way to get around the blocks that the Finnish government are likely to put in place.

It is thought that if you sign up to a casino after the new legislation is passed then the process may take a little longer to get you verified – as the casino will no longer be able to use automated procedures to verify you via your bank account. This is not the casinos fault and something that new users to any online casino will need to be aware of.

Other Countries

Although Finland is the country likely to see a change in legislation the soonest, it is likely that Brexit will affect other countries too. For example, although you can gamble at a foreign casino in Norway, it must be one that the bank are licenced to transfer money to/from. With the change in Brexit rules, it may be that any online casinos hosted in the UK will no longer be on the acceptable transfer list and therefore players in Norway will no longer be able to join the site.

Enjoying Online Casinos

As it stands currently, although Brexit is impacting many things, online casinos and gambling is untouched. This means that if you are someone that does enjoy gambling you can do so in exactly the same way as you have before. It may just be worth keeping an eye on casino news, or the website you enjoy playing on the most to see if there are any updates on how this might change in the future.

If Brexit does have an impact on gambling regulations then you’ll want to be well aware of what is happening before it does, so you can stay ahead of the game and do whatever you need to allow you to keep gaming. This isn’t to say you should give up online gambling altogether due to Brexit, just that you should be aware of what is happening so if it is something you want to keep up, you know how to!