Norway Online Gambling

Posted on 4/14/2022 admin

The regulated Norwegian Gaming Market is stable, and is dominated by two state owned companies, Norsk TippingandNorsk Rikstoto , which have a national monopoly on a large part of the market, including gambling and horse racing respectively. In addition there is a private lottery market including traditional lotteries and bingo. Broad political agreement prevails in Norway that money games must be regulated to prevent undesirable gambling behaviour. Any changes in the law must be introduced by the Minister of Culture.

The current gambling law dates back to 2011, and it states that Norwegian players must be aged 18 to gamble – either online or offline. The legislation also specifies that only internet betting sites belonging to one of the two state monopolies are deemed legal. Despite Norway’s gambling monopoly there are more than 30 sites offering online poker play to Norwegians. So while the government is doing everything it can to prevent online gambling in in the. Norway Online Gambling FAQs. Finally, we wanted to provide you with a list of frequently asked questions that we hear from our readers about Norwegian gambling sites. If you’re still looking for some answers, the questions below should be able to help you. Just click on one of the questions if you’d like to see the answer to it.

Recent developments

Online gambling

As for many other regulators/jurisdictions, Norway faces challenges regarding illegal cross-border marketing of foreign online gambling operators. In 2010, Norway implemented payment-blocking in order to stop money transfers between foreign gambling operators and Norwegian customers. The effects of this measure are still being evaluated. Norway is participating in the expert group established by the European Commission on the basis of the Action Plan for online gambling. The aim of this plan is to clarify the regulation on online gambling and enhance administrative corporation between member states.

Match-fixing

Another challenging issue on the agenda is match-fixing. Some suspicious results in the Norwegian third-tier and several similar incidents in the European Football League over the last years have resulted in a collaborated effort among several Norwegian organizations, including the Gaming Authority, to prevent corrupting sport for betting purposes. Norway is also participating in the initiative taken by the Council of Europe to draw up a binding convention against match-fixing.

Poker championship

Poker played with money has been prohibited in Norway for decades. However, in 2014, amendments to the lottery-regulation opened up for organisations, which have a socially beneficial or humanitarian purpose, to apply for a permit to organize a national championship in poker. This permit gives the right to arrange national championship in poker, for the benefit of the organisation, for a period of three years.

For the period 2015-2017, the permit to arrange the championship has been granted to The Norwegian Leukaemia association, and the first Norwegian championship in poker took place October – November 2015.

Norway Online Gambling Companies

Private poker

Being effective from January 1, 2015, the Norwegian government has amended the Lottery Act as regards low stakes poker, typically played in private homes between friends and individuals with close relations. Pursuant to the amended regulation, it is legal to play poker with money in private homes with a maximum of 10 players, and if the total stake per player do not exceed 1000 NOK. Furthermore, private poker arrangements are only allowed if they do not have an organized or professional character.

Pyramid games

The Norwegian Gaming Authority also supervise illegal pyramid games in Norway.

We concluded in 2014 that WorldVentures is an illegal pyramid game. This has also been settled in one verdict from Oslo District Court in 2016. The company has stopped their business in Norway. The verdict (WorldVentures) from Oslo District Court can be read here.

The verdict was appealed to Borgarting Court of Appeal. The appeal was rejected and the state (Dept. of Culture) was acquitted in a verdict of March 5, 2018.

WorldVentures then appealed to the Supreme Court which in June 2018 concluded not to promote the case before the court. Consistent to this the verdict from Borgarting Court of Appeal is enforceable.

The verdict is the first and only about current rules for pyramid games. The regulations are from an EU-directive so the verdict is relevant to all of Europe.

Helpful links

There are two laws that regulates gaming in Norway:

For more information on gambling addiction and treatment pleasevisit the Norwegian helpline.

Also read regulations concerning the prohibition of the processing of payments for gambling without a Norwegian license.

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