Thanks to a court decision last week, Internet gambling is "on" again for the Åland Islands off the southwest coast of Finland.
The Finish supreme court ruled April 11 that PAF (Åland Islands Slot Machine Association) can legally operate an online gambling site based in the self-governed Finnish territory.
In December 1999, PAF Online, the group's interactive casino and sports betting service at www.paf.fi, began accepting sports wagers from Åland Islands residents with the intention of eventually offering sports and casino gambling to bettors in mainland Finland as well.
It shortly thereafter ran into legal problems stemming from a technicality in Finnish law that gave an exclusive right to operate similar gambling services to another organization. There was also a dispute as to where the actual gambling activity occurs.
Both the Finnish government and the gambling monopoly, Veikkaus, took their case to the courts, asking for a decision on whether Internet gambling activity occurs at the player's location or at the site's server.
PAF won the case and officially debuted www.paf.fi April 12. Bettors from all over Finland are eligible to gamble at the site.
The group has also announced that it will soon accept payment via credit cards, bypassing current regulations that require all players to have Finnish bank accounts. As a result, the site can soon target
potential customers in nearby Sweden.