Finnish government owned RAY opened their online poker today, following in the footsteps of their Swedish counterpart Svenska Spel in offering Finnish players an online poker room for domestic players only.

Apart from poker, RAY's new online service has casino games and virtual slots which are expected to bring the vast majority of revenue. The software is provided by Playtech.

Online games were originally due to start in August already, but some last-minute new regulations by the government forced an almost four-month delay. Even then there were some technical difficulties, as players on RAY Pokeri have reported some bugs in the software, difficulties in registering an account, and connection problems.

Pre-registration was available since last week and it was reported that almost 10,000 players had registered by today. At this stage the highest stakes available are €10/€20.