Triogames Becomes Third Licensee under New Estonian Gambling Laws

OÜ Triogames has been granted an online gaming license by the Estonian Tax and Customs Board and becomes the third approved Internet gambling operator within Estonian borders. In announcing the decision, the board also added more sites to the country’s blacklist of IP-blocked websites. The list now contains nearly 300 sites firewalled from citizens under the new Estonian gambling laws.  

The board technically issued Triogames two operating licenses in granting the company permission to operate its Triobet brand name on both casino games and lottery competitions. Triogames has also applied for an application for long-distance gambling organization. If this license were granted, Triogames would again be the third to receive such a permit.  

Internet gambling in Estonia was made legal at properly licensed online casinos on January 1 of this year. The reasons for the change were seen as financial, potentially even a salve for the country’s recession woes, with Estonia looking to switch currencies and pick up the euro in 2011. (The European Commission confirmed this on May 12 of this year.)  

Though the government began issuing licenses to Internet casino operators last year, the law states that foreign-owned websites will not be granted such a license until 2011. An Estonia-based, Playtech-powered Olympic Entertainment Group casino and poker room was the first to be approved by the tax and customs board, and it opened on January 21.