Poker Writer
State-owned Norway betting operator “Norsk Tipping” is under investigation by the Norwegian Lottery Authority for allegedly allowing minors to participate in gambling activities.
The investigation began when a bank sent a tip to a regulator that a large amount of money was transferred from someone identified to be under the legal gambling age of 18. There have been numerous amounts of these tips sent to Norsk Tipping since 2024, as many as 21 different cases.
The Norwegian Gambling Authority director sent out a press release that recapped the situation so far:
“It is too early to determine what has happened. We will investigate the matter further and have asked Norsk Tipping for more information.”
There is no indication so far that these minors have set up accounts on their own accord or are using them for their financial benefit. The Norwegian Lottery Authority found information suggesting that an adult user was sharing or lending their account to minors. That would be a breach of Norway’s Gambling Act.
The same authority has recently ramped up its efforts to strengthen oversight of the Norwegian gambling market. They immediately blocked as many as over 50 illegal betting sites since April. They also launched a campaign to educate citizens through public awareness campaigns and regular threat assessments to identify possible upcoming areas of concern.
Gambling Outlook in Norway
Norsk Tipping is one of only two operators allowed to offer betting services to Norwegian citizens, which is quite different from the myriad of other laws within the United States, as seen in the US legal sports betting tracker.
In Norway, lotteries and sports betting are the two main avenues of betting legality, with others such as online poker not legal. But even so people in Norway are able to play online poker and other online casino games like video poker through foreign sites.
Land-based casinos are not permitted in the country, which means citizens of Norway do not have the option to play games such as Pai Gow poker while in their home country. They must go abroad for such experiences.
Poker has a bit of history in Norway with Annete Obrestad famously winning the 2007 WSOP Europe Main Event. She broke two barriers in the process, being the first woman to win a WSOP Main Event and the youngest person ever to do so by winning it just one day shy of her 19th birthday.
Despite the absence of casinos for live poker and big online poker operators, Norway will occasioanlly be represented in the winner’s circle of the EPT and WSOP Europe, which has had a diversity of winners in recent years.
