In Norway, where currently all forms of Internet interactive gaming are prohibited, for some time now there has been an ongoing debate on whether or not to regulate this form of gambling in that country. Rolf-Francis Sims, who is legal advisor to Norway’s Ministry of Culture & Church Affairs, says that Norsk Tipping and Norsk Rikstoto, which are the state controlled monopolies, should permit participation of players through the Internet in their land based gaming activities. It was in Dcmber of last year (2008), that the Norwegian Parliament passed a Norwegian Government bill proposal regarding the prohibition of the processing of payments from the country of Norway to remote gambling sites that are non-licensed. The bill classified as an unlawful accessory involvement in the holding and mediation of non-licensed gaming, any activity encompassed by the bill involved in the processing of payments to remote gambling sites that did not already have a Norwegian license.

The source of the prohibition is found not in the Financial Law but in the Gaming Law. The entities that are affected by the bill and form a part of it are Norwegian financial institutions, credit card companies, and other mediums used to assist in the transfer of payments for gamblers in Norway for remote gambling. It is similar to legislation passed in the United States by the government there that has acted to stop online gambling from being legal. It is the goal of the legislation to form an obstacle to remote gambling from Norway, to enforce and strengthen the national supervision of the domestic Norwegian gaming market, to limit the evasion of Norwegian gaming law through the use of interactive gaming.  Land based brick and mortar casinos and poker are prohibited in Norway.

It has been argued that this bill is reasonable in as much as Norway, because the high number of Norwegians having access to the internet, may be considered as being an attractive market for the remote gaming industry. In and to this, it is argued that there has been a significant increase in remote gambling from Norway. Furthermore there is the issue of remote gambling representing a serious risk to the public health as regards many indications of its growth and with it the growth of gambling as a social problems concomitant with the many concerns that go along with such a situation. Included in the proposal are several detailed regulations with respect to the prohibition of gambling online. The bill was sent for public consultation and notification in April of 2009. It is expected that sometime next year both the bill and the regulations will come into force.

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