For years, illegal overseas websites have been facing Norway’s efforts to keep such operators and their services away from local customers. The gambling regulator of the country had previously rolled out an official ban on deposit and withdrawal payments to and from gambling operators as part of its efforts to keep illegal gambling companies away and to bolster its anti-money laundering policy.
Most recently, the Norwegian gambling regulatory body has revealed that it is to make some changes to the above-mentioned ban on gambling payments that is applicable to foreign gambling companies. The amendment is set to be brought into action on January 1st, 2020.
Under the newly-announced amendments that are to be brought to the gambling payment ban regulation, foreign online gambling companies that still offer their services on the territory of Norway would be unable to get their payments processed by payment service providers (PSPs).
The ban on gambling payments in Norway has been imposed for almost a decade now and it seems that the country’s gambling watchdog has no intention of changing that. So far, some unlicensed operators have managed to circumvent the regulations in order to reach local customers but the new rules are aimed to make sure this no longer happens. Reportedly, local gamblers spend approximately NOK6 billion with unlicensed gambling companies on an annual basis.
New Gambling Payment Ban Comes as Part of the Regulator’s Efforts to Protect Norwegian Customers
As mentioned above, the recently-announced changes that are set to be brought to the already existing gambling payments ban will come into effect on January 1st, 2020. As planned by the local gambling regulatory body, the changes would make almost impossible for foreign gambling companies to operate in the country as soon as they are deployed.
The amendment will allow the watchdog to request money transactions to be suspended based only on company names and certain account numbers. In addition, the Norwegian gambling regulator would be able to make decisions on allowing or blocking payments through certain intermediaries that are often used by gambling companies to have the money transactions processed.
In its core, the newly-revealed decision of the watchdog to suspend online gambling payments is aimed at protecting the most vulnerable members of society from getting hooked on gambling. According to the authority, good public control of gambling would be helpful as it would minimize both problem gambling and crime rates. Gram Skår, lawyer and advisor of the Norwegian Gaming and Foundation Authority, has explained that the changes are aimed at making the country’s payment service ban more effective so that gambling operators are prevented from accepting money deposits from local gamblers.
Under the amendment, local banks and financial institutions that are used as intermediaries for online gambling transactions must act to suspend payments for any companies added to the watchdog’s list. The old system of blocking transactions to specific account numbers also remains in place.
