Finnish lose poker appetite

It appears that poker numbers in Finland are going down in the wake of Black Friday

It’s not only poker players in the United States who have been experiencing problems with the online game as poker players in Finland are discovering that the quality of play has gone up while the overall numbers are down. This is a problem of a different nature to that in the United States where online gaming is simply prohibited. Professional players in Finland have found that over a longer period of time the amount of players in the player pool has dropped leaving only hard core professionals to battle it out against one another. Whereas once there were thousands of Finnish players online now there are only an estimate one thousand players taking to their computers to make the easy money from poker.
Finnish professional poker player, Aki Pyysing says that he has found that it is much harder for him to make money through playing poker online. “Players have improved worldwide as well…I am not getting the same results, although I am playing just as much. That indicates that the game is now tighter.” This comes back to Black Friday, when the US poker market was cut out of the industry the number of players fell by an estimated 50%-60% thereby removing a massive amount of money from the online poker economy.
It’s not just the lack of players that is causing concern for Finnish pros but also the danger of government legislation preventing per players from plying their trade. There are noises coming from the new government in Finland about plans to limit the ability of foreign gaming sites to operate there. Pyysing doesn’t seem to be too worried by this prospect, “If the law comes in, people will find a way to dodge it or they will move abroad,” he said.
The head of Poker for Finland’s slot machine association (RAY), Jussi Hieteranta, refused to comment as to whether he was in favour of new legislation or not. He simply said that “People want to play against those that offer the easiest victories, notes Hietaranta. “On RAY’s poker site people play with entertainment in mind. Professionals have never been our target group.” Nevertheless RAY has a great deal to lose especially since they are planning Finland’s first online poker championship. He says that thousands of players are expected to participate.