Finland, which is made up of two cities, is located in the Western part of Europe. If you’re looking for legal Finnish poker sites to play at, or for poker games on land in the within the country of Finland, you’ve found the right place. It’s our goal to stay on top of the ever-changing Finnish gambling market, and provide our Finnish readers, as well as poker players from all around the world with the most up to date news, reviews, and gambling information in regards to the finish poker industry.
Land based Casino Poker in Finland
Finland, a Western European country offers two locations where Finnish residents and visitors can legally entertain themselves playing live Texas Holdem style poker, among other live poker games. The 1st, the PAF Casino is located in Aland at the Arkipelag Hotel. The 2nd poker room is located within the Ray Casino Helsinki which is located in the city of Helsinki in Finland.
Live Poker Games available in Finland
While both casinos in Finland offer Texas Hold’em and Omaha Holdem, the Ray Helsinki also offers Omaha 5, Seven Card Stud, Courchevel and Dealer’s choice.The PAF Casino features Crazy Pineapple in addition to standard options.
Famous Finnish Poker Players
Surely if you follow the poker community at all, you’re familiar with Patrik Antonius, a famous Finnish poker player. Little by little, even with the vastly changing poker market in Finland, Finns are adding themselves to the list of poker players that the poker world can’t help but stand up and take notice of.
- Patrik Antonius
- Juha Helppi
- Sami Kelopuro
Online Poker in Finland
There are also options available to Finnish poker players that prefer to play poker at online poker sites from their homes, offices, or from anywhere they can access the internet.Some of the things Finnish poker players may be in search of when it comes to the top Finnish Poker sites are sites that offer game play in local languages and currency. So in this case, Swedish and/or Finnish, with the Euro being a plausible deposit option.
Recent Changes in Finnish Poker Law
In November of 2010 Finland, as well as Sweden, launched their own government regulated online poker sites; the Finnish site is RAY and the Swedish site is SvenskaSpel. Players playing at these Government run sites as well as any other site licensed in Malta were given the privilege of playing poker tax free online. Well a privilege they already had but nonetheless, if they wanted to continue basking in the benefit, legally, they’d have to abide by the new rules.There are downsides to playing at one of the government sites is well, they just aren’t PokerStars for one. Seriously though, if you’re playing at Finnish or Swedish domestic poker site, your player pool is highly diluted. International poker sites, like Power Poker, Party and PokerStars all offer a lot more as far as game selection, and pure player volume.
Regulated and Tax Free Finnish Poker
- PokerStars
- Blackchip Poker
- BetSafe
- Carbon Poker
What is important to keep in mind for those in Finland playing poker, is that they are able to play tax free as long it’s on a site that has been licensed and is regulated within the European Union. So for instance, let’s envision a Fin logs into PokerStars.com to play poker. Every time that player wins a hand, he owes tax.The good news is that there is an alternative; at least where PokerStars.eu and a handful of other top poker sites are concerned. Players from Finland are able to login to PokerStars.eu (if a Finnish player attempts to head to PokerStars.com they’ll automatically be redirected to PokerStars.eu.), which is regulated by the Malta, Finnish and Swedish governments, and play tax free.The best part is that they are still playing on the PokerStars network and their VIP points are intact, and will continue to accumulate. The only difference is that they are utilizing a different URL for their poker software to make certain that they are within their government’s gambling.
