INTERNET BUSINESS NEWS-(C)1995-2001 M2 COMMUNICATIONS LTD

The Finnish supreme court has decided that PAF, the Aland Islands Slot Machine Association, is allowed to set up an online gambling site.

The site was launched on Thursday (12 April) after the affirmative decision the day before at www.paf.fi

PAF has said that the association will provide online betting, lottery and Casino functions. The decision means that PAF will be able to look for sponsorship contracts and market the site. It also means competition for the Finnish 'mainland' gambling monopoly.

The case was taken to court when the Alandic government gave PAF the right to open the site, interpreting the law as saying that Internet gambling takes place where the server on which the site is stored is located and not at the player's location. The Finnish government and the gambling monopoly Veikkaus did not agree with this interpretation, but the Supreme Court decided that the Aland Islands were right.

PAF has said that there are plans to accept credit cards by Midsummer, which enables the site to abandon the current requirement that the customers have to have a Finnish bank account. This also means that the site can be marketed in neighbouring Sweden. PAF reportedly also provides gambling facilities aboard 25 passenger ships in the Baltic Sea as well as ten ships in the Mediterranean and the Caribbean.

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