meta_id 3086007

On April 21, 2026, Finland's Ministry of the Interior established a legislative project to prepare amendments to the Lotteries Act and the Gambling Act to enable scratch cards to be given as gifts. The project will run until December 31, 2026. Scratch cards were brought under mandatory identification requirements at the beginning of 2024. Following this change, only the buyer of a scratch card could claim any winnings, preventing the purchase of scratch cards as gifts. The legislative project aims to amend this restriction while maintaining consumer protections. Under the proposed amendments, the buyer of a scratch card would continue to be required to be a registered customer of Veikkaus Oy, and identification would be required when purchasing a card. However, any winnings in a scratch card could be claimed by a person other than the buyer, and registration would not be required for claiming winnings. Both the purchase of a scratch card and the claiming of any winnings would require the person concerned to have reached 18 years of age to prevent gambling by minors. A more detailed implementation method will be assessed during the legislative project. The legislative project was initiated following a feasibility study completed by the Ministry of the Interior in January 2026. The study examined existing legislation, the prevalence of playing scratch cards, and alternative models for legislative amendments and their impacts. The study concluded that enabling instant money lottery tickets to be given as gifts would require amendments to both the Lotteries Act and the Gambling Act. The Government proposal is scheduled to be submitted to Parliament during the autumn session of 2026.