Finland is following in the footsteps of their neighbors Sweden and start their own online poker in August. The game will be run solely by the government controlled RAY and the aim is to attract casual players.


It is estimated there are 150,000 - 200,000 online poker players in Finland and RAY hope to get at least 100,000 registered and 50,000 active players by the end of the year. Software will be provided by Playtech, and RAY will be marketed to Finnish players as "the safe alternative" to foreign sites.

RAY will not be competing with great bonus offers or rakeback. Instead the rake will be lower than usual (2.5 - 3 %). "Our rake includes the rakeback," jokes RAY's chief of poker operations Jussi Hietaranta.

Other measures include minimum buy-ins of 50bb and banning the use of tracking software. RAY believes this will lower the threshold for beginning players to set up an account and start playing. Beginner tables will be available for everyone for 3 months after registration.

While there will not be great monetary offers (other than the lowered rake), future campaigns will include Finnish Championship of online poker, celebrity bounty tournaments, satellites to live events at Grand Casino Helsinki and "city wars" where players from different areas in Finland will be able to compete against each other.

All registrants must be Finnish citizens with a permanent address in Finland. "Our aim is to attract casual players and those who have hesitated to start playing on foreign sites because of security risks", explains RAY's chief of Internet operations Kari Hyttinen.

Government may give some boost to RAY's marketing efforts with law changes. Many experts predict that all marketing by foreign online poker, sportsbetting and casino sites will be banned when the country's gaming law is revised later this year.