To allow or not to allow: the recent changes in Norwegian gambling legislation

Norway has quite a strict policy regarding gambling, specially when it comes casinos from the outside. In this case are ment the online casinos with foreign licenses. Norway is a country which has maintained to withhold the gambling monopoly for years. It is operated by Norsk Tipping and Norsk Rikstoto and this is how the Norwegian Government would like to keep it as for now. Gambling in Norway is in the other words monopoly in theory and free market in practice.

Source : https://roysta16.wordpress.com/2015/11/25/nm-i-poker/

As a part which tries to keep the monopoly, Norwegian banks and other financial institutions are not allowed to make any transactions to foreign gambling sites. The ban applies to both deposits and winnings. The goal with this measure is to reduce the offer of foreign gambling in Norway. With its online gaming policy, the Board of Governors want to ensure public control of responsible money games under the auspices of Norsk Tipping and Norsk Rikstoto. Such a channel of the gambling market, with good public control of gambling, counteracts both crime and gambling addiction.

A report published on July 2019, delivered by Oslo Economics for Norwegian Sports Federation and Extrastiftelsen, reveals that sports and NGO`s might end up loosing 130 million Euro per year if the government decides to terminate the current gambling monopoly in Norway.

Today’s gaming monopoly is not a real monopoly. Therefore, the Norwegian Lottery has twice applied for the Ministry of Culture to establish a license for gambling and lotteries in Norway. But have been denied both times – based on the exclusive rights model. The Norwegian Lottery sued the state for breach of the EEA agreement, acquitted the Oslo District Court and concluded that today’s monopoly is declared “necessary”. The verdict is appealed.

Poker Live

Poker was prohibited in Norway until 2015. Now it`s allowed to play poker under some restrictions:

• Participants are close acquaintances.
• The game must take place in a private home and not have an organized or professional feel.
• The number of participants cannot exceed ten persons.
• Total deposit per player cannot exceed 1000 NOK

Poker Tournament

The Lottery Authority is given the authority to grant permission to one (or more) organizations to organize an annual Norwegian Championship. NM (Norwegian Championship) in tournament poker for 2018-2020 was announced last fall. It was the Gynkreftenforeningen that got permission for this period. Yet, this national tournament has never been held in Norway.

This is clearly a positive signal regarding the Norwegian gambling policy. Gamblers consider this as a step towards the right directions. They hope in near future that foreign gambling sites also will be allowed, specially casino sites, so they can use sites like CasinoHex to guide them to the right online casino.

Despite the strict monopoly regime in Norwegian gambling, there are signs that shows there might be a hope.

Source of the image: https://roysta16.wordpress.com/2015/11/25/nm-i-poker/