Online Gaming: What We Love About It

The casino industry is one of the richest and fast growing, generating high revenues from people’s gambling activities. During the last three years, the industry’s profit has increased from 115 billion US dollars to 130 billion US dollars. Analysts’ prediction for the industry’s development in the future is highly positive. Global gambling market is projected to grow at a CAGR of 8.77 percent.

Gambling market in individual countries is also expanding boosted by the popularity of online casinos. Because historically people in the Nordic countries are fond of gambling, the rise of online casino markets in this part of the world is particularly quick. Swedish online gambling industry, for instance, gradually becomes the most promising. Most of the Swedish online casinos are powered by NetEnt and offer gamblers a wide variety of casino games: roulette, blackjack, poker, table games, and baccarat.

The online casino industry in Finland is similarly on the rise. In Q1 2018, there was a 10 percent increase from the previous year in online gambling. The same year, net sales in the online casino industry jumped to 805.6 million euro. In the third quarter of 2019, its profits reached 762.2 million euro, with almost 43 percent of this amount coming from online casinos, or, as they are called in Finnish, nettikasinot. Profits from the National Lotto were equally large last year. Its turnover between January and September 2019 mounted to 267.4 million euro. Now, when the Finnish government is reviewing its Act on Lotteries, the growth of the online gambling industry is expected to be even steadier.

Online gambling is preferred by Finns, because they find it easier to wager from the comfort of their homes or, if they are on the go, from their mobile phones. Indeed, the virtual betting industry has so advanced, becoming portable, that people can play games and wager from any place in the world. Whenever gamblers are, the gambling service is delivered to them through web browser and various dedicated applications.

What is also convenient is that people can register with any casino from their mobile devices. Although the Finnish government does not look kindly upon foreign unlicensed betting websites, forbidding them to advertise their services in Finland, Finns can visit any unlicensed gambling website from their smartphones. Among the most popular foreign operators are 888sport, Betway, Bet365, and SpeedyBet. Their websites have mobile versions automatically delivered to players upon request and thus enable them to play the most popular casino games on their mobile phones. Bet365 even translates its pages into Finnish to facilitate Finnish gamblers’ interaction with its content.

Local Finnish online gambling websites and their unlicensed foreign counterparts also offer a rich choice of online slot machines. If you ever played slot machines in land-based casinos, you will have no difficulty winning money on virtual slots. The two types of slot machines work identically. Both types have a device called a Random Number Generator (RNG) that produces a sequence or numbers that cannot be predicted better than by a random chance. The sole difference between the two types of slot machines is, obviously, that in online gambling the RNG generates these sequences in virtual rather than actual reality. Graphics and sound effects are also more advanced on virtual slot machines, as many seasoned gamblers point out.

No less important is that online slot machines offer some monetary advantages absent in brick-and-mortar casinos. They give free play options and higher payback percentage. Many online casinos also present their customers with free spin bonuses. You can receive them just by signing up with your chosen website. Free spins are useful, since you do not risk your money, when you spin for free. Among online casinos Finnish gamblers can access, Slotty Vegas and Dunder are the most open-handed. With the first, you can spin 135 times free of charge. The second gives 100 bonus spins.

Online betting websites also allow Finnish gamblers to play poker for money. Depending on their knowledge of the game, they can either master No-Limit Hold’em or hone their skills in different poker formats. Finns can also participate in poker tournaments. Online poker tournaments have become popular in Finland, because players earn from participating in them much more than what they invest. A couple of euros invested in a poker tournament can easily turn into several hundred euros. Poker players can participate in numerous types of poker tournaments: multi-table, shootouts, or double-or-nothing, among others. If you prefer to bet on other players rather than play yourself, you can watch the World Series of Poker Main Event 2020. By wagering on poker players, you can earn a handsome profit without large initial investments.

The online gambling industry is blossoming and is expected in the future to offer gamblers more entertainment and more chances to win money. Technological developments that make online games more sophisticated and graphically more eye-catching will continue increasing the allure of virtual casinos.