Q&A: What's behind Norway's egaming crackdown?
Linda Vøllestad Westbye, deputy director general of the Norwegian Gaming Authority, tells eGR she is surprised by the lack of response to cease and desist letters recently sent to operators marketing to Norwegian players
Earlier this month the Norwegian Gaming Authority (Lotteritilsynet) fired a warning shot to foreign gambling companies operating in Norway after the regulator recorded an upsurge in what it described as “illegal marketing”.
Lotteritilsynet sent a letter to more than 20 egaming operators including Unibet, Mr Green, Leo Vegas and PokerStars to remind the firms of Norway’s gambling laws and request that they adapt their operations and marketing.
eGR spoke to the regulator’s deputy director general to find out what impact, or lack thereof, the move has had.
eGaming Review (eGR): Why has a committee been appointed to look at the technological development in the Norwegian gambling market?
Linda Vøllestad Westbye (LVW): We have an expert group which has been appointed by the Norwegian government to look at the future of gambling. The expert group will advise the government on how Norway may continue to offer a socially responsible gambling and gaming market, including social gaming, in the future.
The expert group will consider whether current legislation is sufficient to regulate new forms of gaming and gambling. It will also identify to what extent the Norwegian legal gambling and gaming market meets competition from gambling operators without a Norwegian licence, and will propose measures to safeguard Norwegian licensed gambling.
eGR: Who is in the expert group?
LVW: The expert group consists of ten members with representatives among others from the Norwegian gambling and gaming market, the computer games and technology industry, as well as the Consumer Ombudsman and the Media Authority. They will publish their report in December.
There are also other committees looking at the administrative and economic consequences of a licensed system, but I don’t have any more information on them at this stage.
eGR: Does this suggest Norway is moving towards liberalising egaming?
LVW: As a regulator, I relate to the current situation and at the moment we have a monopoly. If we need to liberalise that would be up to the politicians to decide. Although it would just be speculation from my side, if we do look to liberalise our gaming industry it would seem natural to look at the other Nordic countries.
eGR: You recently issued a cease and desist letter to a number of online operators marketing to players in Norway. Why?
LVW: This autumn there has been a lot of interest in the Norwegian gambling market. We, the Norwegian Gaming Authority, wanted to let the online operators know the Norwegian regulations.
eGR: Operators tell us that Norway is a grey market as your framework doesn’t comply with EU law which is applied to Norway as a member of the EEA. How do you respond?
LVW: I think we have different views. I mean that it is very clear in our framework what is allowed and what is not allowed. In our regulation it says to offer or to market gambling in Norway you need a licence, and in Norway there are two state operators which have a licence, Norsk Tipping and Norsk Rikstoto. There has also been two cases in the EU-system, stating that the Norwegian regulation is in harmony with the EU law.
eGR: Has the letter had the impact you were expecting? Have any online operators withdrawn from the market or stopped marketing activities?
LWV: We have had no response from the letter we sent out, although we wrote that we wanted a reply back. We find it surprising that none of the operators has answered our letter.