New Year's Eve at the Casino?

Friday 27th December 2019

There are still tickets available for this year's New years's dinner and show where local artist Sebastian Rejman will perform the best hits of Bruce Springsteen while you are having a menu of Finnish delicacies.

Casino Helsinki is a well established venue located directly at the heart of Helsinki. The venue is located at famous Mikonkatu 19, which is one of the most prestigious addresses in the capital city of Finland.

Due to current monopoly state of local based gambling in Finland it is not privately owned like the Estonian private casinos that are located in Tallinn for example. The government owned Veikkaus is operating the only live casino in Finland.

In 2019 Veikkaus has received lots of criticism about the status of its monopoly status. Due to that reason they stated earlier this fall that the amount of slots machines will be halved in the coming 5 years.

Despite all the challenges Veikkaus has faced in recent years we still believe that Casino Helsinki is definitely one of the best places to enjoy yourself in Europe. It also has received a generous 4-Star rating on Tripadvisor from 75 unique reviewers.

History of Casino Helsinki

What now is called Casino Helsinki was established as "Casino Ray" in 1991 in the near-by Hotel Presidentti. The venue and name change came in 2004.

Casino Helsinki has operated at Mikonkatu 19 since 2004. So overall the venue has a very long history - spanning over 10 years.

Casino Helsinki also used to be the venue for Miss Finland competition. These competitions were held at Casino Helsinki during the years of 2005 - 2012.

Currently the venue employs approximately 200 full time employees including the dealers and bar staff. At the site you can also find four different diners for various price points, they are called Bar All In, Casino Sports Bar, Fennia Salonki and Pajazzo Trattoria.

One of the biggest challenges that land based casinos face is online. Due to the big increase of online casinos, or as the finish people like to call them ''nettikasinot'' many people have switched their venue of gambling from land based casinos to more mobile solutions.

After 2016 there was also a big surge in the amount of online casinos without need of accounts or documents called pikakasinot in finnish. Veikkaus is currently estimating that these various online venues are taking approximately 10% of its revenue compared to early 2000's amounting up to 200 million euros annually.

Currently Veikkaus is generating a net revenue of over 3 billion euros annually based on the report published by YLE, so these new competitors are not that big of a "threat" for the government owned monopoly, yet.

In general we think Casino Helsinki will stand proud in the future as well. There is the element of feeling like James Bond when you step into a live casino.

Events at Casino Helsinki

As we told earlier the venue is really popular for holding various types of events such as the Miss Finland competition in the past.

There is also a great selection of live performances such as M for Madonna, Ari Joki Goes All In, Lauri Tähkä performance live and many more. These are just a few of the events that are happening at Casino Helsinki this December.

You can enjoy these events and many more directly at the venue. The cost of tickets is usually fairly low and quite many of the events at Casino Helsinki are free for Veikkaus customers via the customer card (Veikkaus kortti).

The hub for Finnish poker stars

For the Poker pros in Finland and people willing to face these pros - Casino Helsinki really is the place to meet. You can meet loads of famous Finnish stars such as Aki Pyysing and Ilari Sahamies playing frequently at these tables.

Due to these stars the stakes and skill level needed to success in the tables might be high for some players. At this point we should remind the reader that playing poker and other games should always be fun and not a primary source of earning money.

You can sit and relax while playing lower bet poker at the tables they offer. Rakes are currently at 5% capped to 10 €. Rake means the share Casino Helsinki takes at every dealt hand.

HT