Scandinavian News

Abolishment of Scandinavian clubs
As I've stated before, Scandinavian poker clubs have been having a very hard time lately. In Norway the police are hunting them down and all forms of live poker are forbidden. The only legal live poker setting in Sweden and Finland takes place in casinos owned by the state. There are legal casinos in Denmark, but nobody really knows the rules for the clubs - one court found that they're allowed and another contradicted it, saying they are not.

As a result all clubs have gone underground having previously been non-profit organisations. Everybody knew what the deal was when they were open, and they were well-run. Now, however, I'm sure the occasional beer or cocktail is sold to keep the clubs running.

Also, once a club has gone underground, Mr. Bandit starts to think that surely, there must be lots of money in the clubs. So they go there. The biggest club in Scandinavia, Stockholm's Sviten, was recently held up not once, but twice, as were the players the second time when they were threatened with guns. The host was stabbed and the owners subsequently decided to close the club completely. A poker player's oasis has dried up, and I personally think it's really sad. Sviten (literally "The Suite") isn't the only club that's been shut down, though. The biggest club in Oslo (and Norway) recently threw in the towel, and the same thing is happening throughout smaller Scandinavian cities.

More Cruises
But hey, people want to gamble anyway, y'know? So how do you do that? That's right, you go by boat. There are currently several cruises in the offing: Gothenburg - Germany (sponsored by CasinoGoodTimes), Nynäshamn - Poland (Expekt), Stockholm - Finland (PAF), and Stockholm-Tallinn (TellPoker). It was hardly the intention of the states to force clubs into sponsored arrangements in order to play outside of Scandinavia was it?

Speaking of Tallinn, that's turning into the poker capital of Scandinavia - more and more Nordic tournaments are being held there. I know, I know, Estonia isn't part of Scandinavia, but it's close enough so I'll include that here. The next big tournament to be arranged in Tallinn is the Swedish Championships. Three games are to be played: Texas hold'em, Omaha and an old friend of ours - five-card draw! In a recent interview, the organisers said that they'd likely lose money on holding a Swedish Draw Poker Championships, but they'll do it anyway. The reason is that our championships can be traced back to 1970 with out-of-country tournaments almost every year. It's therefore an important part of the trademark battle that's erupted between the Swedish Poker Federation and state-owned Casino Cosmopol, about the right to elect a national champion. Another interesting tournament in Tallinn is Betfair's Nordic Top Pair - a tournament for teams of two with a rather quibbly concept in which players can switch seats during the finals.

Denmark to the Courts?
There is currently an on-going case involving the Danish government in the European Court of Justice, concerning the (as you probably know by now if you've read my articles) state gambling monopoly and the practice of not allowing foreign companies to advertise in Denmark. The European Gaming and Betting Association (EGBA) are now urging the European Commission to stop stalling and actually do something about it. Currently, Danish laws are clearly breaching European ones.

The interesting part is that Denmark is the most liberal country in Scandinavia as far as gambling is concerned. Hosting a European Poker Tour event in any other Nordic country would be completely unthinkable, according to each of those countries lottery operators, yet the EPT Copenhagen will be held without a problem.

Tournament Player of the Year
Annette Obrestad, the young, Norwegian star, was voted the "tournament player of the year" at the European Poker Awards in Paris. That she'd win a title was predestined, as she was nominated as "female player of the year" (won by Katja Thater) and "rookie of the year" as well. She also came third in the Card Player European Player of the Year rankings, after Dave "Devilfish" Ulliott (UK) and Christer Björin (Sweden/UK).

Ola Brandborn is a writer and blogger for poker.se.