Norwegian Culture Minister Trond Giske said that the Oslo government is “working to introduce legislation that would ban online gambling.” According to Giske, the new law would work along the lines of the U.S. Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA).
A strong opponent of online gambling, Giske often cites the risks problem gamblers often face. In 2006 he worked hard to ban all slot machines and almost got it. The final agreement was that all slot machines would now be government-run and less aggressive than the ones used before.
Though current Norwegian law already deems the act of gambling online as illegal, new legislation –in effect next spring- would enforce it by banning transactions between banks and online gambling accounts. It is still not clear how this will affect EU gambling websites. Not allowing UK or Isle of Man operated bingo websites to operate in Norway would probably face strong opposition.
Ironically, the first woman to win the main event at the World Series of Poker is Norwegian Annette Obrestad, who won the WSOP European championship this month and is mostly known as an online poker player. Now, Norwegian gamblers, bingo fans included, might have a hard time finding where to play online.
