EGBA slams "restrictive" Norwegian online gambling regime
Industry body questions the legality of the country's gambling model in response to the regulator's warning to foreign operators
The European Gaming and Betting Association (EGBA) has hit back at Norway’s “restrictive” online gambling regulatory regime and questioned whether the country’s monopoly system is compliant with European Union Treaties.
Last week the Norwegian Gaming Authority (Lotteritilsynet) sent a letter to more than 20 egaming operators including Unibet, Mr Green and PokerStars advising them to halt their targeting of Norwegian players.
In response to the letter, secretary general of the EGBA Maarten Haijer told eGaming Review that, as a member of the European Economic Area (EEA), it was “questionable” whether Norway’s monopolised gambling system was consistent with previous European Court of Justice rulings and EEA requirements.
“It is highly questionable whether this is the case if you look at the advertising expenditure of the monopoly and the recent proposal to further expand its sales channels and offer, whilst the stated aim of the monopoly is to limit supply in order to decrease the availability of gambling services,” Haijer said.
Haijer told eGR that it was “regretful” the Scandinavian country was attempting to “impose an overly restrictive regime” the EGBA believed would be unlikely to work.
“The digital consumer seeks and demands a competitive and high quality offering that, if not provided within the regulated framework, can be found just one click away and are often provided by unregulated providers in Asia,” he said.
“Repressive measures such as blockings and shutting down communications are symptoms of a failing system,” Haijer added.
An executive at one of the firms to have received a letter from the regulator contested the Norwegian regulator’s powers to restrict online gambling and said the letters were likely to have little impact on operators’ activity in the market.
“Our standpoint is that Norway is a grey market, as the local legislation is not compliant with EU laws,” the executive said. “Unfortunately the re-regulation of the Norwegian market is not happening as soon as we hoped.”
The news comes as eGR today revealed Ladbrokes recently decided to pull out of the Norwegian market – the operator was not one of the group to have received the regulator’s letter.