Operator News
Finland – RAY begins construction of Finland’s second casino
By Phil - 19 February 2014
Finland’s Slot Machine Association RAY has now broke ground on its second casino, which is to be developed in Vaalimaa in Virolahti, close to the Vaalimaa border crossing point.
Excavation work for the foundations of the casino has now been initiated. Located in the southeastern corner of Finland, the new shopping centre and casino are being developed to serve the growing number of Russians crossing the border each year. The annual number of Russians passing through this border point alone is more than 1m but that number is expected to double in the next few years. The overall project will include a Best Western hotel and an outlet store offering products from Italian fashion companies. The Russian-owned company Vaalimaa Shopping Center (VSC), is funding the construction of the non-gaming aspects of the project believed to total around €70m. The start of construction was delayed by VSC’s Italian partner Arcoretail, who is in charge of retail and management, wanted the external and internal designs for the outlet to be revised. The casino was scheduled to open in December 2014, then by July 2015 and now with the current opening date pencilled in for October 2015.
It will become the second casino operated by RAY with the aim of attracting gamblers from Russia, where casinos have been banished to four remote gaming zone.
Although it has the option of placing up to 500 slots in the new casino along with 90 table games, Ray said the casino would be roughly half the size of the Helsinki venue which boasts 300 slots and 20 table games.
The new casino will be 203km from St. Petersburg and 803 km to Moscow. In 2011, the number of Russian visitors to Finland increased by 27 per cent from the year before, reaching a total of 3.26m visits. According to the Finnish Tourist Board, Russian visitors to Finland spend on project will provide between 400 and 600 jobs, with around 100 of these being directly be employed by RAY. Yaroslav Gerasimov, the Managing Director of VSC, predicts that the project will attract up to 1,500 visitors a day or 500,000 visitors per year.Johanna Järvinen-Tassopoulos, from Finland’s National Institute for health and Welfare, said: “It is too early to say if casino operation will benefit the municipality of Virolahti: it depends on business investments, tourism, customs and visa policy between Finland and Russia. From a regulatory point of view, border casinos are interesting cases especially when gambling operation is restricted or prohibited on the other side of the border. The Finnish public discussion, highlighted by the press in 2012, seemed to react in a quite positive way to the opening of a casino in the Vaalimaa area. Russia has many neighbours which already welcome Russian gamblers to their premises. Will the EU tolerate cross-border gambling in the case of disagreement on problem gambling between two member countries or one member country and a non-member country?”
