Unified Gambling Act – Recent Changes in Norway’s iGaming policies
Unified Gambling Act and Recent Changes in Norway’s iGaming policies. Norway is widely known for its strict regulation system. The government in the country has a monopoly on most of the gambling activities and manages the overall gambling situation in the country. Alongside the two main regulators Norsk Tipping and Norsk Rikstoto. Although they try hard to make the gambling atmosphere stable, the players in the country are restricted to have access to certain kinds of activities which is why there have been increased cases of gambling-related problems in the country. But the government doesn’t plan to stop changing the law and making its gambling policies harsher.
Most of the countries have several acts in their general gambling regulations. According to Reuters, Norway is among them. Three major acts in the country regulate the gambling sector. These are the Lottery Act, the Gambling Act, and the Totalisator Act. They apply to different forms of gambling activities and, naturally, different forms of games need certain approaches to be managed effectively. However, there is a tendency of making a new, unified approach when it comes to gambling laws. Not only Norway, but other countries also tend to avoid confusion, unify divided gambling acts, and create holistic law.
The reason for this is that having several gambling channels usually breaks down the continuity and makes it hard to perceive the gambling space as a whole. Because of the possible advantages of this holistic approach, throughout the year’s many countries have been planning to unify divided laws and make one regulatory framework. As a Norwegian iGaming media outlet www.Nyecasino.ninja reports, it will be an important step to make the gambling situation in the country more consistent and provide better possibilities for responsible gambling.
The results of the unified law
The new regulatory framework was introduced by the Norwegian Minister of culture, Abid Raja, who recently launched a consultation to the EU. Although the regulation system in Norway is already considered one of the strictest in the world, the minister believes that applying changes in the regulatory system periodically is important for protecting the citizens from threats. As he believes providing a new, whole approach to the gambling law is important to ensure the safety and security of Norwegian people and protect them from financial losses.
The country’s main gambling regulator, Lotteritilsynet is also open to the new idea. It’s quite acceptable to them because the Minister indicated in the consultation that the regulator will be allowed to enforce sanctions on the gambling operators if needed. They also voted for improving the gambling ecosystem in Norway and changing the existing legislative structures to provide better control of the gambling sector and provide responsible gambling. However, they have certain demands for gambling operators. Specifically, they said that it’s important to have more state-owned regulators to provide consumer protections.
Besides, according to the new act, non-profit organizations will be able to provide their customers with small value awards games. But there’s nothing said about the banning of payment transactions for deposits or winnings without permission. Another important thing is that the unified act supports legal games on a limited basis, but it’s necessary for these adverts to be presented responsibly.
How did European Commission react?
The Minister of culture had several attempts to officially implement this new idea and revise existing gambling regulation, but the initiative hadn’t deserved the attention of the European Commission for months. The last time he tried to convince the EU about the necessity of new law was in August, when he introduced the consultation but he couldn’t deserve the attention from the commission. The acceptance from the EU was necessary because they have imposed a moratorium on updating the gambling-related law in Norway. But recently they decided to pay more attention to the initiative and considered removing this moratorium. Now, as you can see on this link, it will be revised on November 13. It’s expected that they will accept the basic act. Therefore, the suspension will finally come to an end and further regulations will be added.
The existing regulations
As we already mentioned, the current regulatory system of Norway consists of three different gambling acts. Among them, the oldest one is the Totalisator Act. First introduced in 1927 and the following acts are the 1992 Gaming Act and 1995 Lottery Act. Each of them provides certain rules about different forms of games in Norway and demonstrates a state monopoly for racing and betting activities, sports competitions, and the lottery. The rules have been operating for years but as the current gambling situation and increased rates of the law indicate, the existing three different acts aren’t really effective which means that the revision is needed.
