“Game Over” or DNS Blocking in Norway Explained
The Norwegian government announced plans to employ DNS blocking protocols to restrict access to a list of unlicensed online casinos, a move that could lead to long-lasting ramifications for online gambling in the country.
After deliberating for more than two years, the Norwegian state officially approved of implementing DNS blocking to curtail access to certain unlicensed online casinos that Norwegian players frequent, on the recommendation of the Ministry of Culture and Equality.
The DNS blocking measure passed on 20th October, 2023 and it’s already implemented. But what does DNS blocking mean?
If you try to visit an online casino using your Norwegian IP address, you might be redirected to a page which says that the following website is not available to customers residing in your country. This is a confirmation that the provider you are trying to access has been added to Norway’s list of blocked online casinos.
The affected operators are obliged to display this message and refuse to accept players based in Norway, as per the DNS blocking requirements.
The DNS blocking measure was long expected, but many wonder how it would actually affect Norwegian online players.
In this article, we will discuss the reasons behind the introduction of DNS blocking, including a crackdown on illegal gambling, and we will offer a future outlook on the online gambling industry in Norway which might be more positive than some people think.
Norwegian Laws Concerning Online Casinos
It’s important to discuss the legal and social context that led to the DNS blocking measure in order to understand it.
What you need to know about Norway is that it generally shows a negative attitude towards gambling. This is evidenced by the strict laws and regulations it has in place. There are a few major gambling laws which dictate how gambling is to be conducted in the country:
- The Totalisator Act of 1927
- The Gambling Scheme Act of 1992
- The Lottery Act of 1995
These three acts serve as the cornerstone of Norwegian gambling legislation and have been amended many times over the years. Let’s have a quick rundown of the main gambling laws.
First, players must be at least 18 years old to gamble.
Second, all forms of gambling are overseen by the Norwegian Gaming and Foundation Authority.
Third, the Norwegian state has a monopoly on gambling. There are two state-operated gambling providers – Norsk Rikstoto, providing horse racing betting, and Norsk Tipping, providing all other legal forms of gambling, including lottery, keno, bingo, casino games, and sports betting (bar horse racing betting), both offline and online.
Fourth, while gambling can also be offered by charitable organisations licensed by the Norwegian Gaming and Foundation Authority, a 2007 revision of the existing gambling legislation made it near impossible for private companies to affiliate with charities to offer gambling games which consequently led to an end of gaming operations provided by anyone but the state.
And finally, Norwegian players are allowed to play at offshore online casinos, based on the regulations outlined in the Lottery Act and the Gambling Scheme Act. Online gambling operators are forbidden to conduct activities within Norway (meaning they can be based anywhere else) and/or to target and promote their products to Norwegian players which could lead to a ban, but players risk no legal repercussions.
The DNS blocking was added to the amended Gambling Scheme Act, and while this measure blocks access to many famous operators, many others are still free to access and most of them have dedicated websites displayed in the Norwegian language.
The Prominence of Unlicenced Online Gambling in Norway
Norsk Tipping is the state-owned gambling operator that is currently the only licensed provider of online casino games in Norway. To gain access to it, Norwegian players have to be approved first. Here are the requirements for approval:
- Must be 18 years old or older.
- Must have a valid national identification number or D-number.
- Must have a phone number.
- Must have a bank account (owned by you).
- Must have a BankID.
While these measures were put in place to curb underage and/or illegal gambling, some players might find the process lengthy and tiresome. Additionally, the game selection at Norsk Tipping is not nearly as rich as that of privately-owned online casinos and the state-run casino does not offer any bonuses.
All these things push Norwegian players away from Norsk Tipping and into the arms of offshore online casinos. Norsk Tipping estimates that 15% of all gambling in Norway is conducted illegally, but that doesn’t account for visits to online casinos based outside of Norway, with the hypothetical number being likely higher than the 15% of domestic unlicensed gambling.
Various local statistics show that about 2.5 million Norwegians gamble online, which is almost half the population. Unfortunately, there is no single research that provides estimates about what percentage of the active Norwegian players gamble at offshore online casinos.
Still, if you were to look at other European countries such as Germany and France, the former projects that three-quarters of all online betting in the country is done illegally, while the latter estimates that 1.5 billion euros annually is generated by the black market.
Both France and Germany have legally privately-owned online gambling operators, and yet, they are still struggling with their channelisation rates. Knowing this, one can conclude that the situation in Norway with its single state-owned online provider is even worse.
DNS Blocking and the Future of Online Gambling in Norway
After the DNS blocking measure was implemented, we personally tried accessing some of the most well-known online casinos in Europe with our Norwegian IP address and found that some of them were blocked via DNS, while many others were free to access.
This tells us that the Norwegian government is either too slow to act and block all providers or it’s forward-thinking and wants their citizens to play at reputable offshore casinos if they are doing it anyway.
DNS blocking is meant to reduce harmful gambling, which is why the Norwegian government readily employed it, but it has the tendency to do the opposite.
The first victims of DNS blocking are usually the most visited casino sites with the biggest marketing budgets. If the government were to block all famous operators with great reputations in the industry, then what’s left? The unregulated shady online casinos.
That is not yet the case in Norway as we are still able to access regulated online casinos based in the European Union, but if the government keeps adding known names to the list, Norwegian players would have no choice but to visit the most obscure and potentially dangerous websites.
The European Union is highly aware of that problem and the European Gaming and Betting Association implored Norway to rethink its gambling policies and instead adopt a licensing model like that of Sweden.
Since adopting that model which allowed for private online casinos to operate in the country starting in 2018, Sweden managed to bring its channelization rates to up to 82%. Swedish players are thus protected by their gambling regulator, while the state benefits greatly from the additional taxes.
Conclusion
Norway remains one of the few European countries with a state monopoly on gambling, and while the state’s attitude towards it is still negative, it appears that Norwegian players feel differently, based on the number of active gamblers in the country.
Rather than blacklist reputable operators via DNS blocking, Norway could instead look at its neighbor Sweden which keeps reaping successes after it opened its markets to private gambling operators.
