Former Finnish online casino affiliate site Kasino Curt has been relaunched, with a new focus on land-based operations.
The site, previously taken offline following a clarification request from Finnish police, will continue to target a solely Swedish demographic.
“They suspected that Kasino Curt is marketing online casinos to Finns and Swedes,” said founder Sami Helenius.
“After reading their message I immediately understood that there was no way for me to convince them that we are not targeting Finns.”
The initial police order concerned the fact that Finnish players were able to gamble on advertised sites, due to the lack of blocking procedures.
Under the Finnish Lotteries Act, the country’s gambling market comes under the exclusive control of Veikkaus, RAY and Fintoto.
“Finland does not block gambling sites, so of course it’s possible,” said Helenius. “Finland defends its monopoly very, very aggressively, even when the “aggressor” is not targeting Finnish casino enthusiasts.”
“In order to protect this gambling monopoly, which should not even exist, the Finnish authorities prevented us from promoting online casinos to people living in Sweden.”
The case comes at a time when Finland is having some difficulty uniting its approach to gambling, with the National Institute for Health and Welfare advising Veikkaus remove gaming machines from supermarkets.
However, the state-owned operating monopoly has disregarded the call, stating a tightly-controlled, government operation more effectively limits social and health related harms.
Whatever the future for Finnish gambling, Helenius stated that Kasino Curt will now completely alter its target market.
“Now we are marketing to Finns, but we are not promoting online casinos.”
