Norway’s gaming authority, the Lotteri-og Stiftelsestilsynet, has ordered banks to stop processing transactions by payment providers with online gambling sites that are not licensed in the country.
The order was issued in late March and ordered banks to stop the transactions by April 24, according to Norway’s Klassekampen media. Some payment providers affected include Trustly, Entercash, Earth Port, Worldplay, Inpay and some local operators.
The authority says about $2.56 million has moved through the payment providers in 2016., with as much as a half billion Norwegian Krone already moving through the sites in the first two months of 2017.
The authority’s director told local media that the authority is dedicated to stopping the transactions and will issue new orders to stop transactions should other payment providers be found to be working with unlicensed sites.
Late last year, Norway was considering changes in its gambling laws to allow licensing of more offshore sites, but eventually preserved the split monopoly between Norway’s Norsk Tipping and Norsk Rikstoto operators.
In another move in European markets, Poland has expanded its blacklist for unlicensed online gambling sites.
The country’s Ministry of Finance added several sites to its Illegal Domains Register including Marathonbet, Bet-at-home, and Vulkanbet. The sites have not sought licensing under the country’s new online regulations that went into effect last month, the ministry said in a press release. The ministry is ordering Polish ISPs to block access to domains operating without a license, beginning July 1.
New taxes on gambling turnover—rather than revenue—in Poland has caused several sites such as Betfair, William Hill, Bet365, and Pinnacle Sports to leave the market.
