Viljo in Finnish Online Casinos

This page is for players from Finland who want to know how Viljo works for deposits and withdrawals at online casinos. Viljo is a newer open-banking, Pay N Play method that lets you pay directly from a Finnish bank account, and it is currently offered at a small number of casino sites. Below we explain how it works, how to use it and what Finland's gambling rules mean for you, along with the benefits and drawbacks of this service.

Online Gambling Regulation in Finland

Something that many people do not know about Finland, even those who have lived here their entire lives, is that the country had slot machines going back to the 1920s. It was among the first places in Europe that offered them to the public through private companies. Horse racing was legal at this time as well, with tote betting getting officially established at the end of the 1920s, and charitable gaming launching at the start of the 1930s.

Thus, Finns are no strangers to gambling. Though, curiously, they have had a stricter online gambling landscape compared to Sweden and Denmark, which have reputations as being two of the more developed European iGaming markets.

Traditional online casinos in Finland launched at the very beginning of the 2010s, when RAY, the country's machine and casino regulator, went live with its gaming site. It held a monopoly over this kind of entertainment until 2017, when RAY merged with Veikkaus, the Finnish betting and lotteries body, and Fintoto, the horse-racing one, to form Veikkaus Oy. This new organization assumed a monopoly on all listed forms of gambling and has websites that offer casino games.

As we understand the 2001 Lotteries Act of Finland, residents are not penalized for gambling at foreign platforms: the law targets companies and individuals who provide unauthorized gambling or market it. Authorities do not appear to pursue people who gamble on foreign services that are not approved in Finland, but such services offer no Finnish consumer protection.

Parliament approved a new Gambling Act in December 2025. It sets up a licensing framework that will allow private operators to supply online casino games, bingo and fixed-odds sports betting. Companies could apply for licences from the National Police Board from 1 March 2026, and approved operators can begin serving Finnish players when the Act takes full effect on 1 July 2027, when the new Finnish Licensing and Supervisory Authority takes over supervision. See also online sports betting.

Until then, Veikkaus Oy remains the only operator approved in Finland, and international sites are not approved in Finland. As we understand Finnish law, it is aimed at those who offer or market unauthorised gambling rather than at players, but such sites give you no Finnish player protection. Access to these platforms may change once private operators go live in Finland, so check the current rules before you play.

For now, foreign online casino operators still try to hold on to Finnish players, including by offering payment solutions they cannot use on Veikkaus Oy's platform. These sites are not approved in Finland. They hold licences from offshore jurisdictions such as Anjouan, Mwali or Panama, and a licence from those places is not a Finnish licence (see our payment methods and the Caribbean casino directory).

So, Viljo is a PSD2-based method that only people with a Finnish bank account can use. It is currently offered at a small number of international casinos aimed at Finnish players, which pair instant deposits and light registration with bank-level login security.

Using Viljo Across Finnish Online Casinos

We mentioned a few times above that Viljo is an open banking payment option and that this is a Pay N Play solution. For those readers who do not know what these phrases mean, we shall explain them quickly here.

Open banking services are ones that permit third-party companies to connect to people's bank accounts and use the funds present there for transactions with other businesses or individuals. These are approved services that work with financial institutions, communicating with them via APIs or digital interfaces. These allow them to send money from users' bank accounts to merchants or other people.

API stands for application programming interface and enables limited data exchanges for money transfers, which still use typical bank authentication and security features. This means that session tokens, money-laundering checks, and proper encryption are all utilized in open banking.

Viljo works in a similar way to Zimpler, Brite and Trustly. These are all Pay N Play services, meaning you can register with a single deposit: when the transfer is made, your bank shares basic player information with the casino, which allows automatic account creation and identity checks. The casino may still ask for further verification.

To use Viljo, players must have a Finnish bank account, which Viljo will securely link to and pull funds from. It does this while taking advantage of the banks' strong customer authentication, and this is a payment option for those who like to have prime convenience, speed, and minimal KYC issues.

Source: LCB Viljo guide. Viljo holds no funds.

Viljo launched in 2025 and is run from Helsinki. It is not clear which company operates it: LCB names Wamo Solutions Oy, while other sources credit ViljoPay Oy. We could not find a Finnish Financial Supervisory Authority (Finanssivalvonta) register entry for Viljo, so do not assume it is FIN-FSA approved; the bank login you use is still your own bank's regulated service.

Finnish banks such as Nordea, OP, Danske Bank, POP Pankki, S-Pankki, Säästöpankki, and Oma Säästöpankki support Viljo, which does not require a separate account and, as explained, holds no funds. It only moves ones from and to players' bank accounts.

Once a Viljo transaction has been authenticated, deposits are usually credited almost immediately, though no official speed is published. Withdrawals depend on the casino's internal processing rules and are not available everywhere. The main risks are fake authentication pages and sending money to the wrong recipient, so always check the address of the page where you log in to your bank.

Deposits and Withdrawals with Viljo

There are a good number of gambling websites out there that have integrated Viljo. The list is not substantial because when this Viljo casino guide was posted, the service was just a little over a year old.

Still, we had seen a number of gaming platforms for Finnish players with Viljo offering it for both deposits and withdrawals. These are international casinos based in other territories. A licence from an offshore regulator does not make a site approved in Finland, so choose brands with a good track record of paying players, and read the withdrawal terms before you deposit.

Those that have experience using Trustly or Zimpler should not have much issue getting going with Viljo, as it works in a very similar way to those two open banking picks. Accordingly, once you have chosen what you believe to be a trusted Viljo casino, one that meets your personal standards, here is what you need to do to start using it with Viljo:

With a funded online casino account, you are ready to play games, and if you win something, most Viljo casinos let you get your cash-out using this method. For that, you will need to go back to the banking/payment/cashier window you used to add funds to your account. Open its withdrawal section tab, pick Viljo, your bank, input the sum you wish to take out, and complete the same bank authentication as before. Open banking systems can facilitate fast transactions, but in practice, casino withdrawals may take anywhere between a minute and a few hours. This is on account of internal site procedures.

Conclusion

Finnish players who have a bank account and like Pay N Play can try Viljo, but should weigh the unclear operator and regulatory status first. Finland has seen Pay N Play sites through services such as Trustly, Zimpler and Brite, and now also has Finnish solutions such as Trumo and Viljo that offer sign-up through a bank login. See our overview of Pay N Play casinos.

Viljo is an alluring proposition for fans of what open banking brings to online casino gambling - immediate deposits straight from your bank account. It facilitates almost real-time euro transfers in both directions for everyone in the country willing to use it. If you are one of these individuals, check out our table of Viljo online casinos to see if you can find one that’s a good fit for you.

Related reading

• Viljo Online Casinos

Other ways to pay in Finland

We also review these payment methods for players in Finland: Trustly, Trumo, Apple Pay, Brite and CASHlib.