Official language: Finnish, Swedish
Population: 5,327,490
Currency: Euro (EUR)

Current Exchange Rate
1 GBP = 1.0681 EUR
1 USD = 0.6754 EUR

Poker in Finland
Poker has spread like wildfire across Europe in the last decade, and Finland is one of many countries where interest in the game has really grown. Much of this is due to recent televised poker games, to the availability of online poker, and to the publicity surrounding the Finnish poker star Patrik Antonius. Finland even has its own special poker variation – it's called Sökö, and it's very similar to 5-card stud, but between one pair and two pairs there are a couple special hands – a 4-card straight and a 4-card flush.

While the game is difficult to play in Finland because of the gambling monopoly and the lack of casinos (actually, there is just one Finnish casino), the popularity has not changed. Regular poker tournaments, including the Helsinki Freezeout, the Extreme Poker Challenge, and the Small Town Poker Tour give Finns a chance to enjoy poker in their home country.

Online Poker in Finland
Finnish online poker is also popular, but is equally difficult to find. Of the three government-controlled bodies that have a collective monopoly over all gambling in Finland, only one offers online poker. It's PAF and it controls all gambling in the Åland Islands. Their site offers a full poker room, along with a casino, bingo, a sportsbook, and lottery. A few years ago RAY, which controls casino-style gambling in the rest of Finland, tried to shut them down for infringing on their monopoly, but it did not work, and PAF remains the only legal supplier of internet poker in Finland. RAY wants to offer Finnish poker online as well, and is awaiting permission from the government.

The government in Finland does not like its citizens to play online poker at foreign sites. They even considered passing a law that would let players get their losses back from the poker sites. Fortunately this didn't pass, because it would have surely caused all foreign internet gambling sites to block Finnish players. The EU is upset with Finland for having such a strict monopoly controlling internet poker and other forms of online gambling, and is pushing hard to open the industry to private Finnish and foreign companies.