STATE ONLINE POKER SITE COULD SAVE MILLIONS

25 April 2008

Are the Finns planning to introduce a state monopoly on Internet poker?


Remember that nifty idea to stifle online poker that was floated by a Finnish academic study commissioned by that country's Ministry of Social Affairs and Health earlier this year? The one that suggested that if Finnish players could recoup their losses from either the online gambling provider or credit-card company, it would not only protect problem gamblers and children, but slow the outflow of Internet gambling funds?

This week it appeared that the Finns actually have another plan, and it's about a state controlled Internet poker website.

Hints that this was a possibility emerged when the communications manager for Veikkaus, the state's lottery and betting monopoly, told local newspapers that Finnish internet poker players are losing an estimated Euro 50 million a year to foreign game sites.

The newspaper group Suomen Lehtiyhtymä quoted Ilkka Juva, who apparently claimed that a Finnish web poker site could bring in several million Euros for domestic use. Perhaps operated by Veikkaus or the state-dominated Slot Machine Association (RAY), although the latter organisation has hitherto opposed online gaming.

"We could gather the majority of the revenue flowing out. Certainly not all of it, but two thirds of Euro 50 million could be attainable," Juva is reported to have said.

Finnish gambling legislation could enable the setting up of such a web poker site. In Finland's monopoly system (land) poker has been the domain of the state controlled Slot Machine Association (RAY), which has so far been averse to internet gaming.

Finnish officials are apparently working on a proposal for Parliament for the reform of the current gambling legislation later this year which will include the division of responsibilities between the state controlled Veikkaus and RAY companies.

Earlier this year the Finns made the headlines (see previous InfoPowa report) with the release of a report by academics at the University of Joensuu. Commissioned by the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health, the report recommended that the government amend current gambling laws to allow Internet poker players to claim back online losses from the game. The idea was apparently that such a new law - unique among European and probably other countries too - would effectively force online poker companies to block Finnish players from playing on their sites.

At that time the newspaper Helsingin Sanomat estimated that Finns spend around Euro 150 million on online poker each year, and are the fourth-biggest gamblers in the world in terms of spend per head of population. The report claimed that the Joensuu report was circulating within Finnish government circles at that time.

Speculation was that if the report was adopted it would enable the Finnish government to put an effective stop to Finnish participation in foreign Internet gaming without expressly forbidding it. The government iself would not reimburse the players, rather it would compel either the credit card company who loaded the account or the site itself to refund the player's losses.

Another possibility might be a combination of the claim-back concept with a state monopolised online poker operation. If Finnish players used foreign poker sites instead of the state operation, they could be empowered to claim back losses from Finnish financial companies facilitating their gambling, thus discouraging both players and local financial companies from dealing with online poker websites operating outside the state's exclusive mandate.

Online Casino News courtesy of InfoPowa