Norway to further restrict payments to int’l gambling sites

Norway’s government is proposing new methods of curbing competition of the state-owned Norsk Tipping gambling monopoly, including stricter monitoring of online gambling payment processing.

Last week, the Lotteri-og Stiftelsestilsynet (Norwegian Gaming Authority) began a consultation on its proposals to further restrict internationally licensed online gambling operators’ access to Norwegian gamblers. The consultation will be open until August 15.

Among the NGA’s proposals are making it crystal clear that the law already requires local financial institutions to block transactions involving unauthorized online gambling operators (aka all of them except Norsk Tipping and Norsk Rikstoto). Despite this requirement, the NGA claims that Norwegians collectively make up to 40k daily transactions with international gambling sites.

The NGA has previously ordered banks to stop processing online gambling payments using certain accounts, but some affected processors simply changed account numbers. The NGA now wants to be able to order banks to stop dealing with certain companies by name, rather than account number.