Digital accessibility has become a legal, reputational, and operational risk that gambling operators can no longer afford to ignore. With less than three months until EU Member States must begin enforcing national laws implementing the European Accessibility Act (EAA), gambling industry stakeholders face a fast-approaching compliance challenge.

Failure to meet accessibility requirements could expose operators to financial penalties, enforcement action, public scrutiny, and consumer litigation—especially if key features like responsible gaming tools are not accessible to all users. We’ve already seen how this can unfold in the United States, where thousands of lawsuits have been filed under the Americans with Disabilities Act against digital platforms, including online gambling operators.

In response, gambling advisory firm EGARA and accessibility technology and certification provider CityMaaS have announced a strategic partnership to deliver the first-ever accessibility solution tailored to gambling operators by combining their respective fields of expertise.

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This includes accessibility audits, product integration support, certification, and staff training—all delivered with a deep understanding of the unique demands and risks faced by licensed operators in highly regulated gaming markets. It addresses a long-overlooked risk area that also ties directly into responsible gaming, fairness, and user protection.

Key highlights of the EGARA x CityMaaS Partnership:

• Readiness check: The partnership between EGARA and CityMaaS offers operators a readiness check and manual to implement across their business.
• Certification: The partnership offers operators a solution to certify their accessibility offering. This will prove highly important for operators as several gambling regulators have confirmed the regulations are in scope and are already themselves being called to action by accessibility enforcement bodies.
• Audit function: The partnership offers a tailored auditing, reviewing platforms’ accessibility offering, ensuring they reach more customers, more effectively in line with the projected regulations, while ensuring critical features like responsible gaming tools are available to everyone with fairness, transparency and actual protection of all groups.
• ESG and Responsible Leadership: The collaboration offers bespoke advice and training to ensure operators lead— and not just comply—by embedding fairness and inclusion into the core of digital player experiences across all offerings including websites and customer service functions.
• Technical Solution: CityMaaS’s technology incorporates the latest advancements in accessibility, providing a robust and reliable solution for EGARA’s clients in the gambling industry.

Operators and platform providers can begin accessibility readiness assessments now: www.egara.co/contact-us.

Jessica Maier, Co-founder of EGARA said: “Despite its transformative potential to harmonize accessibility standards across the EU, the European Accessibility Act has surprisingly remained underdiscussed within our sector, leaving many organisations unprepared for its imminent impact. Through our partnership with CityMaaS, we’re enabling operators to rapidly close any existing gaps to reduce legal and reputational risk, and ultimately make gambling platforms more inclusive and sustainable, bolstering responsible gaming efforts and providing opportunity for sustainable growth.

“CityMaaS is thrilled to collaborate with EGARA to bring our state-of-the-art accessibility solutions to the gambling sector. Together, we are setting a new standard for accessibility and user experience,” said Rene Perkins, CEO of CityMaaS.

The Prague Gaming & TECH Summit 2025 brought together top experts across the iGaming and tech landscape, and Nordic Legal stood out as the event’s Scandinavian Legal Expertise Sponsor. A renowned legal advisory firm in the Nordic region, Nordic Legal continues to shape the future of gambling legislation and compliance in Europe.

In this post-event interview, we caught up with Pekka Ilmivalta, Head of the Finnish Office at Nordic Legal, to dive deeper into the firm’s insights on the upcoming Finnish gambling reform, the legal challenges it poses, and the opportunities it presents for operators preparing to enter the market.

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Finland is preparing to launch its regulated gambling sector in January 2026. As an expert with over 20 years of experience in the gambling industry, how do you view its draft legislation and the current state of the Finnish gambling market? 

Finns are used to gambling online, and the size of the market is close to 2 billion euros in GGR. As the market share of the national monopoly operator, Veikkaus, has declined to around 50 percent, nearly half of the gambling spending already takes place outside the Finnish regulation. Therefore, the gambling legislation reform is really needed.

The Government Proposal now being dealt with in the Finnish Parliament is generally a comprehensive and a good package. As the political parties are quite unanimous about the need for the reform, I expect the parliamentary discussion to concentrate on the balance between responsibility measures and the features making the market interesting enough for the operators to enter the regulated market. Especially marketing, use of affiliates and bonusing will, and should, be discussed.

I believe that the Parliament will approve the new legislation early next autumn and that the B2C license application process will be able to begin already in January next year.

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The Finnish legislative review council has raised concerns about potential increases in gambling harms under the new regulatory framework. What measures do you believe are necessary to mitigate these risks, and how could Finland balance market liberalization with responsible gambling practices?

Personally, I think that gambling harms must be taken seriously. However, as almost half of the Finnish gambling now happens outside the regulated market, I am convinced that succeeding in channelization is a crucial starting point to really mitigate gambling harms. Therefore, attractiveness of the market and measures against the black market are extremely important. Furthermore, self-exclusion and responsible gambling tools are, of course, needed for the players. Generally, I believe that AI assisted monitoring could and will have an important role in preventing harmful gambling in the future. To really work, responsible gambling tools need to be both pragmatic and relevant for each individual player.

Considering Finland’s upcoming gambling reform, what legal and operational challenges should gambling operators be prepared for, particularly regarding compliance and player protection? Which key trends do you see shaping the market’s future?

As it seems now that affiliates and welcome bonuses will be banned, operators will have to find other means to build their brand and acquire customers. Even though traditional marketing and sponsoring are widely acceptable, I would expect to see innovative solutions to stand out from the probable marketing avalanche during the first months after the market opening. Perhaps new kinds of sponsorships or retail activities? Or even enhanced player protection measures to gain a competitive edge?

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Overall, I would advise operators to start their market entry preparations early enough. The licensing procedure could take several (6 to 9) months. Also, adjusting to the local technical and player protection requirements might not happen overnight.

What insights could help Finland create a balanced and effective gambling market?

I believe that the new legislation will provide a good enough framework for a functional gambling market. However, based on experiences from Sweden and Denmark, I would point out two practical aspects crucial to making the new legislation effective: First, there needs to be collaboration between licensed operators and the new regulator. Dialogue and a mutual will to find solutions should be the common mindset. Secondly, the regulator hopefully has enough resources (tools, persons and persistence) to interfere with the black-market operations, which will evidently still exist also after the reform.

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Nordic Legal has extensive experience advising European governments on regulatory best practices. How can your firm assist operators looking to enter the Finnish market and navigate the evolving legal landscape?

With our deep knowledge of Finnish legislation, extensive experience from regulatory developments in other jurisdictions, and strong industry relationships, we are well-positioned to support operators and B2B suppliers entering the Finnish market. We can offer comprehensive guidance not only on compliance and licensing, but also on navigating strategic challenges, ensuring our clients are well-prepared for a dynamic and shifting legal landscape. Our proactive approach enables us to identify regulatory changes early and help clients stay ahead of industry developments.

The GCGRA has granted NOVOMATIC a Gaming Related Vendor License – Tier 1, enabling the company to expand its presence with a comprehensive portfolio of state-of-the-art land-based gaming solutions. Recognized for its technological excellence and commitment to regulatory compliance, NOVOMATIC aims to establish itself as a reliable partner for licensed operators in the UAE.

Stefan Krenn, Member of the Executive Board of NOVOMATIC AG Group, said: “Receiving this license as one of the first gaming technology groups worldwide is a significant milestone for NOVOMATIC. This honor reflects our unwavering commitment to offer the most

innovative products fulfilling the highest standards of responsible gaming. As we enter this exciting opportunity in the United Arab Emirates market, we successfully continue our international expansion strategy.”

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“As a leading global player in the gaming industry, NOVOMATIC is excited to bring its cutting-edge product portfolio to this dynamic and rapidly growing market. Our latest gaming solutions are designed to deliver exceptional performance to land-based gaming facilities across the United Arab Emirates, ensuring that international players can enjoy their preferred games with the same high standards and quality they expect from other jurisdictions worldwide” said Thomas Schmalzer, VP Global Sales and Product Management of NOVOMATIC AG.

Established in September 2023, the GCGRA serves as the UAE’s federal executive agency responsible for regulating and overseeing commercial gaming within the UAE, crafting and implementing a comprehensive regulatory framework and guidelines to ensure integrity, transparency,

and responsible business practices across the industry. NOVOMATIC’s licensing approval under this robust framework emphasizes its proactive approach to compliance and its vision for establishing long-term partnerships built on trust and excellence.