RAY and Veikkaus comprise two of the three national gambling monopolies along with Fintoto, which offers betting on horse racing.

The two companies that now have permission to offer online gaming will be able to offer their new products from this month but it is believed that RAY will wait until August to launch its poker and casino games products on the web.

While the UK has been at the forefront of the online bingo movement, it has taken some other countries some time to realise quite how popular online bingo is with people playing games on the internet. Some famous online bingo brands are beggining to be launched all over Europe.

The legislation has been brought in, it is believed, to help RAY and Veikkuas compete with non Finland based private operators

In Finland, legislators are keen to keep online gaming as part of the monopoly that exists in the country. Despite some protests from land based gambling operators in Finland, the Finnish regulators are adamant that the monopoly situation is not in violation of any EU laws.

Kaisa Fahllund, a partner and head of the technology group at the Helsinki office of law firm Hannes Snellman said: “Basically Finland sticks to its monopoly but the reason that RAY has been allowed to offer these games is to compete with the foreign operators.”

The expansion of online bingo into Europe looks set to continue strongly this year as sites such as Foxy Bingo are launching in Sweden in the coming weeks.