Norway Intensifies Crackdown on Online Gambling
In collaboration with different political parties, the Norwegian gaming authority is working on tightening laws against foreign online gaming companies. To safeguard the national gaming market, network blockades and stricter monitoring of money transfers are being considered.
The Norwegian regulatory authority, Lotteri-og Stiftelsestilsynet, is looking to expand the 2010 payment ban to protect Norway's state gaming monopoly. A list of these reinforced measures is expected to be presented to the Norwegian parliament on May 7. This amendment aims to completely remove internationally licensed providers from the Norwegian market if they don't have an explicitly Norwegian license.
For this purpose, a potential DNS blockade against online casinos without a Norwegian license is being contemplated. Simply put, this involves the blocking of the respective IP addresses and completely stopping money transactions, particularly through third-party payment providers. As a result, the Norwegian gaming authority plans to closely monitor and meticulously record payment transactions between gamblers, online casino operators, and payment providers in the future.
The proposal reads, "The Gaming Authority has the authority to refuse payment transactions between gaming companies, as well as those payment transactions conducted on behalf of a gaming company."
The legislative draft also includes a series of advertising restrictions against agencies and platforms that use their platforms to promote unlicensed online casinos. If these operators don't comply, the Lotteri-og stiftelsestilsynet will have the power to impose fines on them in the future.
The regulatory authority has received political support from the Norwegian political landscape: for instance, the moderate "Senterpartiet", the socialist-left-oriented "Sosialistisk Venstreparti", and the social-democratic "Arbeiderpartiet" have all spoken in favor of stricter regulations. Over the past few months, these parties have repeatedly brought this topic up in the Norwegian parliament.
Calling them by their names
The measures list mentions the concrete names of providers who "do not have a license to provide services in the country". These include the Swedish gaming providers Betsson and Kindred, the British bookmaker Unibet, and the online casinos of ComeOn and Guts.
Betsson CEO Pontus Lindwall has reacted to Norway's regulatory plans. During a Betsson Q1 results presentation, the CEO seems unfazed: "The demand for Betsson products is high in Norway, so these changes are likely to be rejected. Everyone must realize that these initiatives are not modern and therefore impossible to implement in such structures," says Lindwall.
Meanwhile, Kindred has also responded to the 'accusations': "Not easy, but almost as usual," is their somewhat sarcastic response to Norway's gambling supervisory authority. The Malta-based company also noted that the planned legislative changes "raise concerns about data protection and freedom of information laws," implying that they would only have limited impact.
However, affiliate giant Catena Media, also based in Malta, stressed that Norway is not a major market for the company, but the measures could still significantly impact future revenues.
So far, there have been no further statements made about the proposed regulations. It is reported that the legislative amendment could be enforced as early as next month. In this scenario, only the two Norwegian gambling providers Norsk Tipping and Norsk Rikstoto, as the only companies, would not be affected by the stringent regulations.
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