Estonia Launches First Online Casino

Phase one will allow players to place wagers at legally-licensed gambling sites whose servers are physically located within Estonia’s borders. Phase two is scheduled to begin sometime in 2011, and will see the opening of Estonia’s internet gambling industry to foreign operators. Phase one of Estonia’s legalization of online gambling is currently underway, and just days ago players saw the launch of the first fully-licensed online casino in Estonia. The site obtained its license to operate on January 21st, after passing rigorous software testing and examinations from Estonia’s regulatory committee. The new site is operated by the Olympic Entertainment Group, which also operates land-based casinos in Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Belarus, Romania, Poland and Slovakia. 

Powered by Playtech software, the site offers a complete internet casino, with more than 150 games for player to choose from. It also includes the first online poker site in Estonia, running on the global iPoker network. Their services are available in English, Russian, and of course Estonian. 

This new site is not the first online casino to provide services in the Estonian language. There are a number of sites operated out of other countries that have been targeting Estonian players for years, allowing them to sign up and play. While foreign operators are not “officially” allowed to do this until sometime next year, this is really only a matter of gambling tax which will be levied on foreign operators. Until the change takes place, Estonian players will continue to frequent these offshore casinos, poker rooms, and other gambling sites.