Estonian Casino Operator Gaining Financial Ground After Mobile Casino Installation
Olympic Entertainment, the government-owned monopoly provider of gambling in Estonia, yesterday reported that losses were down in the first six months of 2010 after a horrendous 2009. Total operating loss was about €600,000, a huge “improvement” over the first six months of last year, in which the company took a €9 million loss.
In addition to Estonia, Olympic also runs land-based casinos in Belarus, Slovakia, Latvia, Poland, Romania and Lithuania. Officials last year blamed the loss on several factors including the general economic recession affecting those markets; a nationwide ban on all casino gaming in Ukraine, which made necessary Olympic’s withdrawal there; and a lack of online gaming in Estonia.
Estonia has some of the most restrictive laws against online gambling in the world, with laws in place that force Estonia-based ISPs to block access to foreign-based online casinos and poker rooms. Early this year, the government agreed to allow the operation of Olympic-Online.com, a Playtech-run Internet casino; in June, Olympic introduced its iPhone-compatible mobile gaming service with about 20 games including slots and blackjack variations.
The results, as they say, speak for themselves. The newfound popularity of the online casino combined with unexpectedly high numbers playing slots and blackjack on iPhones in Estonia have promised the possibility of profit for the third and fourth quarters of 2010.
Olympic currently operates 64 casinos across its European markets, down from 86 in 2008.
