Online gambling facing obstacles in Finland?

finland is in the midst of preliminary investigation whether or not to take the road of eight other EU countries who have made it harder for their citizens to play on online sites.

For over 70 years all gambling on the Finnish soil has been run inside a monopoly and that is not going to change. Yearly profits of this business are over billion euros and a large part of that sum is given to science, culture, veterans and to many non-profit organisations.

Undoubtedly Covid has taken a bite from monopoly's profits which has speed up the investigation process even further. The Finnish Ministry of the Interior is investigating if money transfers between a player and a gambling site can be forbidden if the player uses a Finnish bank account.

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On a personal level I'm a bit scared that stunts like these might scare the big game providers away from the Finnish markets. If such restrictions take place in the future the only viable option to continue playing is to open a bank account in a more gambling friendly EU country.

So my question is, if you are a citizen in a EU country what is your country's stand towards online gambling? Any problems with money transfers?

This is rather troubling for any Finnish poker players and hope this doesn't mean the demise of online poker or casino.

Do you have a link or source for this info?

Shells said:

Do you have a link or source for this info?

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This was the starting point before Covid (available in English) which pretty much stayed under everyone's radar:
https://intermin.fi/en/-/arpajaisla...tojen-entista-parempi-ehkaisy-ja-vahentaminen

And today it hit the news in one of the biggest newspapers in Finland.
https://www.aamulehti.fi/a/bef46d82-e093-4fb2-a591-e30daadab6d3?c=1522737894164
This link is only available in Finnish, and you can only see the beginning of it because of the paywall.

The findings of the investigation will be given into the hands of the Finnish Parliament some time next spring.

Thanks!
I translated it...my Finnish is a little rusty...lol

Nafor said:

So my question is, if you are a citizen in a EU country what is your country's stand towards online gambling? Any problems with money transfers?

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My country´s stand? Probably casual one like blocking unlicensed gambling sites although i still use some of them to this day ...
Also no problems with money transfers?

what a bad luck dear friends from finland we hope your situation improves

Another nail in the coffin for online poker, which is already going through a somewhat rough spot, after the COVID-19 induced boom went bust. Volume is down almost everywhere and the recreational money is drying up. Which I guess was only to be expected, since many people have lost their job in the crisis and not yet found a new one. As for our finnish friends, I guess, you can already only play on the same non-regulated sites as for instance americans? I dont remember seeing finnish players on either pokerstars or 888 Poker, but maybe I am wrong?

fundiver199 said:

As for our finnish friends, I guess, you can already only play on the same non-regulated sites as for instance americans? I dont remember seeing finnish players on either PokerStars or 888 Poker, but maybe I am wrong?

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Fortunately it has not gone that bad, at least not yet. We are free to play on almost any site but who knows what the future holds :questionm

I think online gambling is legal more places now