The Gambling Situation in Norway

Online casinos, online bookmakers and other online gambling websites always have legal problems somewhere. The gaming market was very open in the past due to the lack of local legislation on the matter. However, everything has changed over time.

Currently, almost all developed countries have their own regulations, which have changed the way citizens interact with the world of online gambling.

Trying to monopolize the market

Norway has a state company, Norsk Tipping, which monopolizes the gaming market; It has been operating since 1948 and has basically all types of games possible: sports betting, casino games, lottery, bingo, etc. The idea behind the state monopoly is to allocate the money obtained in the gaming industry to sports and the culture of the country, something that Norsk Tipping has been doing practically since its inception.

In order for Norsk Tipping to maintain its position, the Norwegian government has implemented several regulations that prevent competition from accessing the local market and prevent its citizens from playing elsewhere. In 2017, Norwegian banks were ordered to stop processing payments to certain unauthorized online gambling websites. Actually, there is no Norwegian gambling license. Since there is no Norwegian license for the time writing, Norwegian CasinoHex provides a lot of information on which licenses brands usually use instead, which are the most popular in Europe and how to choose the brand you can trust.

Despite the best efforts, Norwegian players can still deposit money at unauthorized online casinos and bookmakers without major problems. The problem lies in the fact that the 2017 legislation directed banks to block payments to certain specific accounts, to which the companies in question reacted by changing account numbers.

Under recently proposed new legislation, payments should be assessed by the name of the company to which the accounts belong, and not simply by account numbers. This should make it impossible for companies to bypass the legislation by creating new bank accounts.

The importance of payment methods

So far, we have talked about the payment methods that players can use to deposit money on gambling sites and to withdraw it if they win something. The ban does not eliminate all the options that players have to send money to some international gambling sites and to play on them; however, it will prevent many from being usable.

If players want to play outside of the Norsk Tipping monopoly, they will be able to do so, but most likely a lot of people will resign themselves to using the state operator. The available payment methods are one of the criteria that players take into account when choosing the online gambling website they want to bet on.

Blocking DNS of gambling sites

Blocking payment methods is not the only one that the Norwegian authorities have implemented to prevent people from playing at international bookmakers. Norway will also allow DNS blocking of unauthorized gambling sites.

Other countries have also taken steps to block the websites of unauthorized gambling operators so that their citizens cannot access them. Local internet providers simply block user access to certain gambling sites, preventing them from being accessed without a VPN or without a proper system to bypass this censorship. These measures have been highly criticized, since internet censorship is something that people do not contemplate in these times.

Fortunately, Norway has decided to do it differently. The measures implemented will inform the user that the website they are trying to access is not licensed to operate in the country, but will allow them to continue if they wish.

Measures have also been put in place to ban the advertising of unauthorized gambling operators in Norway, which should also help to maintain Norsk Tipping’s leadership in the Norwegian market.

Lack of competition

The Norwegian market situation is very interesting. On the one hand, it is very good that the money obtained thanks to the local monopoly is dedicated to culture and sports. However, the lack of competition from the gaming industry in Norway doesn’t have to be good for the people. In more open markets, players can choose from multiple casinos and online bookmakers, while in Norway the options are limited.

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