Amendment introduce in Finland to enable internet gamblers to claim back losses in gambling
Finnish Ministry of Social Affairs and Health plans to introduce an amendment to Finland’s online gambling laws to enable Internet gamblers to claim back their losses by being paid by either the firm providing the online poker services, a credit card company, or the winning player in the game.
The Ministry feels that if such a law were enacted, foreign operators of Internet poker sites would likely prevent Finnish players from taking part in the game, effectively banning Finnish players, since a player protected by such a law would be too great a risk to the game organizer.
The Ministry commissioned the University to look into ways of protecting gambling addicts and children from the dangers of online gambling.
The idea of a payback scheme was conceived by the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health civil servants together with the compiler of the report, the University of Joensuu professor of Law and Economics Kalle Maatta. According to Maatta, such a law does not yet exist anywhere in the world.
The idea of the law is not to force citizens to stop gambling online, but merely to provide them with the opportunity to claim back their losses that they incurred while, for example, they played online poker when drunk.
