04/03/2010, Online casino

Finland is the latest country which took the first steps in featuring online bingo to its inhabitants.
The Finnish Slot Machine Association (RAY) and the Finnish state lottery Veikkhaus Oy, which share the state monopoly, will soon start offering poker, bingo and other online games.

Although the new licensing laws allowed them to operate from the first of March, RAY preferred to delay the proceedings until August.
In September 2009, the Finnish parliament tried to prohibit all forms of gambling advertising.

The Finnish regulators are keen to keep online gaming as part of their state monopoly, despite some protests came from land based gambling operators.

“Basically Finland sticks to its monopoly but the reason that RAY has been allowed to offer these games is to compete with the foreign operators,” said Kaisa Fahllund, a partner and head of the technology group at the Helsinki office of law firm Hannes Snellman.