Norway liberalisation still on agenda, says lawyer

Norway’s government will continue with plans to liberalise its online gaming market despite the release of a report earlier this week recommending ways in which its current monopoly system might be strengthened, a leading egaming lawyer has said.

Cecilie Haavik, partner at law firm DLA Piper, told eGaming Review the Ministry of Justice-commissioned study, which detailed a number of measures to further restrict unlicensed online gaming, would have little impact on the whether or not the government would decide to open up its gaming market to more operators.

“I believe the Minister will quickly put this paper into a drawer and go on with the plan regarding a slight liberalization of the present lottery act,” Haavik said. “The government has an ongoing hearing process regarding changes in the law which will go on undisrupted by this expert report,” she added.

Gambling and horse racing licences within Norway are exclusive to monopolies Norsk Tipping and Norsk Rikstoto respectively, but the study found that up to 42% of Norwegians believed foreign betting companies were “allowed” to offer online gambling products to players in the country.

One of the recommendations outlined in the report was to require banks to block payments from unlicensed operators, however, Haavik said the measure didn’t have “any real chance” of working.

“Since foreign gambling companies uses third-party assistance for money transfer from the players, I do not believe that Norwegian authorities have any real chance of preventing such transfers,” she said.

The report also claimed that up to 90% of adverts for egaming on Norwegian television were for foreign betting companies not licensed in Norway, and suggested the Media Authority implement a ban on “unlawful marketing” to “stop the uncontrolled flow” of ads into Norwegian homes.

But Oslo-based Haavik said such a ban would be in breach of EU law and Norway’s obligations according to the European Economic Area (EEA) Agreement with Union.

“It is not likely that the government will use its direct or indirect ownership in any media or television to instruct on which commercials should be sent,” Haavik said. “The present government in Norway is not socialist so such intervention is highly unlikely,” she added.

Last month European Gaming and Betting Association secretary general Maarten Haijer told eGaming Review that, as a member of the EEA Agreement, it was “questionable” whether Norway’s monopolised gambling system was consistent with previous European Court of Justice rulings and EEA requirements.