 When the American economy collapsed the economic failure did not stay here but rather spread across international lines to affect other countries. Estonia, a small nation in Western Europe just north of Latvia and west of Russia, was one of the countries hardest hit by this economic meltdown. As a relatively new country they fought and won their independence from Soviet Union in 1991. In the early 2000s an aggressive reform plan spurred one of the fastest growing economies in the world. In 2004 they joined the European Union and hoped to adopt the Euro as their official currency until the economy crashed. Now with their country’s national economy down a shocking 36% since 2008 it looks as though they have little hope of meeting the strict Eurozone criteria for entry. New growth has been practically nonexistent so in order to jump start the economy their government is trying a new approach to get themselves back on the right track. What is this new approach you ask? Well the answer is simple. They plan to pull themselves out of the muck through online gambling. There are two stages of the plan, the first of which is already taking effect. As of this year it is now legal for Estonian citizen’s to gamble online using locally licensed sites- a decision that has been finding much support with its citizens. By 2011 the country hopes to move into phase two of their plan which is designed to attract foreign investors into the new market. The Estonian Free Press has already reported that this stage has already begun to come into fruition with large international online gaming operators. They are wooing Estonia with attention and advertising campaigns full of promise. Investors aren’t just in a rush to get access to players online either, many are trying to set up shop in the country itself seeing it as a perfect gateway to the Baltic market. For the time being, the Estonian government is working to decide what sort of criteria they should use to determine the legitimacy of an organization when it comes to allowing international online gambling establishments to flood the market. They have already set up a 5% total revenue tax on all internet gaming sites that are currently running with their approval and have begun to hand out licenses to local businesses. As you can imagine foreign investors are already anxious for the second stage of operations to get underway.
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