Antti Tiihone, Vice President, Product Management, Veikkaus
According to YLE ,The Finnish Slot Machine Association (RAY) has received permission to start offering poker and other casino games online. This follows a government decision announced on Thursday, February 4th.
RAY plans to introduce a variety of internet poker and casino games, which it believes will create an income of around 25 million euros annually. New government licences come into force on March, 1. RAY hopes to start its new game services by August.
The Finnish National Lottery (Veikkaus) is being allowed to introduce online bingo and similar number-based games. Internet games will be strictly supervised in accordance with government regulations.
Both RAY and the Finnish National Lottery must verify both the address and identity of the player and ensure that no minors participate. Players will also have the right to cap their bets. Similarly, RAY and Veikkaus will be able to set limits on individual players.
To I-gamingforum.com Antti Tiihonen, Vice President, Product Management, Veikkaus gives the following comment:
“Veikkaus has offered games in the internet since 1996, and the new permission allows us to introduce online bingo as well as some other number based games. This is just widening our game offerings in the internet. It gives us possibility to implement games which are only in the internet and with higher frequency. This kind of games include also betting limits.
Concerning the Finnish gaming market, this decision is very remarkable, because Finland doesn’t have operator for offering casino games in internet. Under this license RAY can offer eg. table and card games over the net.”
