International: Norway bans online transfers

Last week, Norway’s parliament enacted a law that bans Norwegians from transferring money to Internet casinos and poker rooms. The new law amends three preexisting laws and specifically defines Web-based transactions as subject to a previously defined “mediating service” clause.

The nation’s Ministry of Church and Cultural affairs proposed the law last September as anti-gambling sentiment grew over spiraling slot-machine addiction. According to the ministry’s legal advisor, Rolf Sims, the bill was “on the drawing board” as early as Oct. 5.

“The anti-gambling lobby has got the wind in its sails,” Sims told Reuters at the time. “It would be political suicide for any government minister to suggest legalizing gambling.”

Yet the bill has found little purchase in some circles including the Norwegian Financial Services Association (FNH) and the European Union. Norway is not an EU member state. However, as a part of the European Economic Area, the Scandinavian nation has drawn fire from Brussels for encouraging France, Germany and the Netherlands to keep their gambling markets closed.

The FNH, meanwhile, has pointed out the difficulties American legislators have faced in implementing the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act. The UIGEA also bans online transfers to Internet gambling sites but has experienced a myriad of enforcement setbacks since first becoming law in 2006.

“Although the law amendments have been adopted in the Norwegian Parliament… regulatory guidance might need to be revised,” FHN spokesperson Tonje Westby told GamblingCompliance.com. “If politicians choose to introduce revised regulations, it will take some months before the law amendments come into force.”

Westby went on to say, “This [prohibition] will be very difficult to enforce, and those who really want to gamble on the Internet will find other ways to do so. Norwegians susceptible to problem-gambling behavior will most likely be persuaded to set up foreign bank accounts and use foreign payment systems outside Norwegian regulatory control.”

While Norwegian MPs have yet to announce a definitive enforcement timeline, legal commentators at GamblingCompliance.com said, “Delays could mean the ban will not take effect before mid-2009.”