Finnish player lost €6,000 and Tax Administration sought over €60,000 after review

A Finnish citizen in his early 20s lost more than €6 000 playing foreign online casinos in 2022–2023 and, after voluntarily notifying his activity to the Finnish Tax Administration (Verohallinto), received a tax assessment exceeding €60 000 including interest. His accounts showed cumulative gross winnings of about €135 000, and Verohallinto assessed taxes on those figures.

Origin of the case

The player contacted Verohallinto to declare his gambling and correct his taxation, but was unaware that rules applicable to casinos located outside the European Economic Area permit taxing winnings as individual income without automatically offsetting losses from other games. The sum of gross amounts recorded in his account was the basis for the tax calculation.

Intervention and litigation

With the help of his father, the man appealed via Veronmaksajien keskusliitto, where a tax lawyer took the case. The player requested review of the assessment and the matter reached the Korkein hallinto-oikeus (KHO, Supreme Administrative Court of Finland).

The KHO ruled that for games organised outside the EEA the taxable income may be calculated by pelirupeama (a gaming session) instead of automatically adding all annual gross winnings. The court did not, however, define how long a single pelirupeama lasts. The decision favoured the player in principle, but the final amount of his tax liability will depend on the practical session definition applied by the administration.

Regulatory context and Verohallinto practice

Verohallinto published detailed guidance on the taxation of winnings from foreign casinos in April 2023; that guidance considers, in addition to the website, the operator’s registered domicile and the country of the licence to determine whether a game is taxable in Finland. The guidance is available in the Agency’s official documentation and can be consulted under regulation.

In Finland, prizes from games organised on Finnish territory or by operators licensed in the EEA are generally tax‑free for the player, while winnings from games organised outside the EEA are typically taxed as employment income.

Practical elements of the issue

The case illustrates how rapid turnover of funds between games can inflate the "gross winnings" recorded on an account. The same stake can appear repeatedly as winnings in different games, so the sum of gross amounts may far exceed the original capital or the player’s final economic result. The KHO ruling mitigates that risk by allowing offsetting of wins and losses within a single pelirupeama.

Signals from the market and the player’s concerns

The player interviewed told Svenska Yle that foreign casinos target Finns in Finnish and cited social media influencers as referral routes to those platforms; he also mentioned Stake, registered in Curaçao, linked to streams on Kick. The individual states he suffered from gambling dependency; he has not gambled for a year and a half and appears in the report under a pseudonym for fear of consequences to his professional career.