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The Supreme Administrative Court of Finland has rejected the implementation of a spin-by-spin tax system on online casino slots hosted outside the European Economic Area (EEA).
Initially, the framework targeted offshore operators that held licenses from jurisdictions like Curaçao and applied a tax on earned income, as opposed to winnings from EEA-licensed platforms, which kept the funds tax-free. According to the new court decision, the game-based approach has been rejected, allowing stakes on losing games to be deducted if they fall under the same gaming group.
Tax lawyer at the Finnish Taxpayers’ Association, Miika Härkönen, commented:
“The most important thing about the decision is that the Supreme Administrative Court did not accept the Tax Administration’s view that each game should be viewed as a completely separate event. I would myself think that play in which the games have a clear temporal and functional connection and which may also include breaks is regarded as a session of play. If the taxpayer repeats the same activity on the Saturday of the following week, there would be two sessions of play.”
After the 3-2 ruling, the Tax Administration has been ordered to update its guidance, with users now able to seek reassessment of previous taxes. Players can ask the court to adjust winning calculations made in the last 3 years.
