Toward the end of January 2008, Finnish Minister Stefan Wallin said that the government should run an online poker service in order to more tightly control the market and protect its citizens.

This came one week after a government-commissioned academic report recommendation that the government could force financial institutions or online poker sites to refund the losses of online poker players.

The minister was quoted as saying, “It is difficult to halt the rise in the popularity of online poker. It would be better to offer players a legal and responsible alternative. Responsibility would mean setting an 18-age limit and requiring players to identify themselves.”

This entry was posted on Friday, February 15th, 2008 at 11:35 pm and is filed under Finland Gambling, Gambling Industry News, Online Poker. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.