Finn loses €6,000 at foreign casinos, faces €60,000 tax demand from Verohallinto

A Finnish man who reported his own gambling to the Finnish Tax Administration, Verohallinto, lost just over €6,000 on foreign online casinos in 2022–2023 but received a tax demand exceeding €60,000 including late interest. His accounts showed total gross wins of about €135,000, and Verohallinto assessed tax on the reported winnings rather than on net result. The man contacted Verohallinto himself to correct his tax, and he is anonymised in the reporting because he fears effects on his career.

Case background and immediate outcome

The player's net losses for 2022–2023 were slightly more than €6,000, while the sum of gross wins recorded to his play accounts was approximately €135,000. Verohallinto issued taxes calculated on the declared gross wins, producing a bill of over €60,000 after interest. The player first sought help from his father, who contacted Veronmaksajien keskusliitto; a tax lawyer there took up the case and the player appealed his tax assessment to the courts.

Korkein hallinto-oikeus decision and its limits

The Supreme Administrative Court, Korkein hallinto-oikeus (KHO), ruled that winnings from online casino games organised outside the European Economic Area can be treated as taxable income on a per-play-session (pelirupeama) basis. That decision was favourable to the player because it allows wins and losses within the same session to be aggregated.

The KHO did not, however, allow a player to offset losses from one play session against the wins of another. The court also did not define how long a single play session lasts. The final tax outcome for the player therefore depends on how a play session is defined in his case.

Finnish tax guidance and consumer duties

Verohallinto published a detailed guidance on taxation of foreign gambling winnings in April 2023. The guidance states that taxation depends on where the game is organised and under which licence it operates; games organised and licensed in Finland or within the EEA are generally tax exempt for players, while those organised outside the EEA are normally taxable as earned income.

Verohallinto advises that the operator's registered domicile and licensing country matter, not the website language, payment method or marketing targeted at Finns. The interviewed player said foreign sites market in Finnish and that social media influencers channel players to foreign casinos.

Market examples and practical issues

The report highlights Stake, registered in Curaçao, and its links to Kick streaming, where Finnish content creators broadcast regularly. A wider problem in taxation arises when gross wins are recorded across many fast-moving games: the same bankroll can generate summed gross wins far higher than the player's original stake or final net result. The KHO ruling reduces that distortion within a single play session but leaves other aggregation problems unresolved.

"The court decided that taxable income from EEA-external online casino games can be calculated per play session," said the reporting in Svenska Yle.

The player says he has not gambled for one and a half years and wants to warn others about tax risks from foreign online casinos.