Estonia Begins Blocking Foreign Gambling Sites Until 2011

Having legalised internet gambling this year, Estonia has now begun blocking online casino and poker websites without Estonian licenses from operating within their market, as part of a two tier strategy to implement the country’s new Gambling Act.
Estonia initially took the decision to legalise online gambling so as to help out its badly battered economy, which had fallen by 36% following the 2008 global economic crisis.
However, in order to protect its fledgling online gaming market, Estonian players are only able to gamble using locally licensed online gambling sites until 2011, when the whole of Estonia’s internet gambling market will be opened up to foreign investors.
Consequently, the Estonian Tax and Custom Board have drawn up a list of around 200 domain names whose IPs the Estonian internet providers are now invited to block, or face a fine of 40,000 Lithuanian Litas ($15,600). Included on the list are some of online gambling’s biggest operators, such as PokerStars, PartyPoker, Full Tilt Poker, Unibet, and Bwin.
Despite drawing criticism from the European Commission, EU trade legislation as regards gambling are particularly vague and so Estonia’s decision in likely to proceed without any outside interference. Estonia is also claiming that its protectionist policy is temporary and necessary to iron out the precise details and rules required to operate a successful and legitimate international online gaming operation.
However, only the Olympic Group, which offers a Playtech-powered casino, has been granted a local license, and so Estonian gamblers in the meantime will have to make do with domestic sites with small levels of online traffic and profit potential. Commenting on the situation, Estonian professional poker player Imre Leibold said:
“The possibility that online poker gaming could be restricted is not good news for us. If things get tough, one may have to consider moving residence or start working abroad like Estonian builders in Finland.”