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A UIGEA for Norway?

Like Switzerland, Norway operates a successful state gambling monopoly. And though Norway currently allows remote online casinos and poker sites, rumors indicate that the government has plans to stop the financial transactions between Norwegian financial institutions and online casino gambling organizations. And this in turn leads to an entirely government run gambling operations much like Switzerland’s government gambling monopoly, Svenske Spel. Internet gambling has become increasing popular in Scandinavia in the past couple of years, and a ban on remote companies is sure to cause concerns in the rest of the world. Between internet bingo, poker, and online casinos, gamblers have become increasing interested in e-gaming.

The report was carried across several reputable industry related news sites – so though the articles are unsourced, there seems to be a level of agreement concerning the direction the Norwegian government is headed. Norway’s government, the Culture Minister Trond Griske in particular, has a history of anti-gambling, anti- online casino gambling and related topics.

If the rumors are in fact true, the Norwegian government will be following in the footsteps of other countries that have eliminated all remote gambling. Most notably, the United States banned offshore online casinos and gambling. Like the U.S., the rumors suggest that the Norwegian government will claim that the actions are to protect the problem and underage gamblers. Norway does have a significant number of problem online casino gamblers, but often times banning the activity from offshore companies is not entirely effective (take into consideration the problems the U.S. has encountered with the World Trade Organization).

Eliminating remote online casinos would then give the state run company, Norske Tipping, power over all of the e-gaming and much of the land-based gambling industry. Just last year the government passed legislation that gave Norske Tipping complete control over all of the land-based slot machine industry. Of note is that, just like in Switzerland, the state run gambling company means heavy profits for the government.