State Owned Poker Site in Austria to Launch Soon

Jesper Kärrbrink, CEO of Svenska Spel, confirmed during the latter part of 2007 that Austria would be launching the next state owned online poker site. He announced that the site would run with the help of Svenska Spel and boss Media. Kärrbrink had stated that Austria had decided to follow in Sweden's footsteps and offer their citizens a safe place to play online poker. It was then stated that the site would be launched in early 2008.

It has now been announced by Karl Stoss, the head of Casinos Austria, that the state owned poker site will be ready for launch in the next few weeks. The site is called Win2day and was developed with the operator Svenska Spel. They used the Boss Media technology platform and are focusing mainly on player protection. The maximum weekly deposit limit for the site will be €800.

When the site is launched it will be only the second country to launch a state controlled online poker site. The first to do so was Sweden. In Austria, Casinos Austria and Austrian Lotteries are the only licensed companies who can promote electronic games of chance. Together they will offer games for the new site.

The new site is expected to increase the popularity of online poker in the country. However, many believe that the state controlled site may lead to the demise of private operators who offer their services to the country. That is exactly what happened in Sweden.