Can a monopoly on gambling really stop the black market? Our take on Norway’s experience
There is no universal way of regulating gambling. Each country has to carefully weigh the arguments and come up with the system that works best for their market. For many, it is still a process of trial and error.
Norway, in its desire to stand strong against any form of gambling that is not owned by the government itself, has established a strict monopoly. Currently, there is one state owned company that has the right to offer gambling services. Any other websites that may target Norwegians ether by offering Norwegian language, or having an option for Norwegian currency, is considered illegal. But controlling what’s happening online is not as simple as shutting down a bookmaker’s booth on the street. So let’s see how successful Norway has been at restraining the black market.
Norsk Tipping, a brand that by and of itself represents all the legal gambling in Norway, has failed to satisfy the majority of its users, as the statistics on Google queries shows. According to data, collected by casinobonuser.nu, a service that compares the offers of international betting sites, almost a thousand people in Norway (a country of only five million citizens) have been searching for “casinobonuser” on Google. Taking into account that the state owned operator does not offer any bonuses, it is safe to assume that people were searching for the bonuses of unlicensed bookmakers.
An impressive number of similar searches is, however, not the only indicator of a high interest in international bookies among the Norwegian. Another, indirect but a much more vivid indicator, is the fact that the government of Norway is using a whole arsenal of measures to cut the access to unlicensed betting sites.
Lotteri- og stiftelsestilsynet (the government agency overseeing all things gambling in Norway) started by fining betting companies that work without a license. Those daily fines pushed the biggest players out of the market. Well known international companies like Bet365, Betsson, Unibet and others no longer work with Norwegian players, not wanting to take any risk damaging their reputation. The less known brands, however, are still there.
Next, came the payment methods restrictions. Since the 2022, most of the common payment methods were no longer available for internet gambling with unlicensed companies. And the list of options got shorter and shorter every year. Now, DNS blocking is supposed to finish the job by blocking access to the illegal websites for those who are located in Norway.
However, looking through the gambling forums gave us an impression that the players are not planning to give up so easily, and are now actively exploring the ways to bypass the restrictions. There is currently an increasing number of conversations where the players share tricks and ideas of how to continue using their favorite bookies regardless of their condemn by official media.
In conclusion, we can say that even the most elaborate restriction may fail due to the complexity of the internet and craftiness of its users. Maybe, with time, all the measures taken by the Norwegian authorities will bring results, but for now we can still see a stable level of interest in unlicensed brands.
