Norway Casinos

Norway Casinos & Gambling:

There are no conventional casinos in Norway, and gambling is illegal for the most part in the country. There are two companies that are allowed to offering gambling services, these are Norsk Tipping and Norsk Rikstoto. For gambling on  sports, keno, lotteries, and a few other items one must go through Norsk Tipping. The company is state owned and operates under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Culture and Church affairs. There are several restrictions and parameters place on how, when, and whom may bet - these will be covered later in this article under, "The casinos and gambling games of Norway".  Norsk Rikstoto is also state-owned and is the only company authorized to arrange horse race betting.

Gambling parties may be arranged in a home as long as the party is not organized as a business, and this would presumably include admission fees, club dues, taking a rake on poker, or any sort of commission or vigorish. Since 2010 the government has forced all banks in Norway to deny customers the use of debit and credit cards at any casino - online or on land, anywhere in the world.

The casinos and gambling games of Norway

Norway has about 1,200 venues, mostly kiosks which offer a total of 2750 Multix Individual Video Terminal (IVT) machines. Some of the games available on Multix, Belago, and online from Norsk Tipping include: Lotto, Viking Lotto, Joker, Extra, Keno and Flax, scratch, bingo, slots, Roulette, Black Jack, Caribbean Stud Poker, video poker, and Baccarat. The Norsk Tipping Sports betting unit offers the following games in Norway; Tipping, Langoddsen, Vinneroddsen, Oddsbomben and Liveoddsen.

Play on Multix and Belago machines is highly regulated and restricted. For instance, to play the Norwegian version of a slot machine  one must be 18, possess a player account and ID card (cash is not accepted) and may lose no more than NOK 400 (about $75) per day and NOK 2200 per month. A one hour break is mandatory after one hour. The max bet is also NOK 50 (about $10) and the most that can be won is about $300.

The player ID card is coded with the player's age, gender, address, and phone number. All sales and pay-out transactions are stored in the Norsk Tipping data warehouse including the game played, how many tickets were purchased, how much was paid, how many weeks the play occurs over, where the tickets were purchased per day/month/year, over which channel, the previous and next game, etc. Additional data stored for analysis and possible restrictions includes whether the player won or lost, how much, on which game, and what date.

For Q4 2011 the following data has been released showing that 15% of players were stopped by Global monthly limit (NOK 2200) 1.6% of gambling sessions stopped with the mandatory break (1 hour continuous play) 1.1 % have set personal limits for time, and 2.3% of players set stricter personal limits for money spent.

Parimutuel facilities in Norway

There are 12 horse racing venues in Norway, all administered by Norsk Rikstoto. These are Ovrevoll Galoppbane, Oslo - Bjerke Travbane, Oslo - Forus Travbane, Stavanger - Bergen Travpark, Bergen - Momarken Travbane, Eidsberg - Leangen Travbane, Trondheim - Jarlsberg Travbane, Tønsberg - Harstad Travpark, Harstad - Biri Travbane, Gjøvik - Sørlandets Travpark, Kristiansand - Drammen Travbane, Drammen - and Klosterskogen Travbane, Skien. All races are what we would refer to in the West as harness racing, although one track, Ovrevoll Galoppbane in  Oslo allows them to gallop rather than trot.

Norway Casinos and Gambling in Summary

Obviously there is a state monopoly on the gambling industry in Norway. Through a series of legislative and administrative actions beginning in the 1990's slot machines became a thing of the past and in July 2007 they were banned entirely in Norway. In 2009 IVTs (interactive video terminals) were introduced and we now have the current state of affairs. Punters have an outlet, albeit terrible in terms of variance (30:1 max win) and they do have variety. It is no wonder so many of our Norsk friends have turned to online gambling and ewallet payment processor.

The very brief history of Norway

The history of Norway has been greatly influenced by its geography and climate. Agrarian and civilization centers developed upon migrations as the great inland ice sheets receded beginning about 10,000 BC with the southern areas eventually becoming mostly agricultural centers and the northern denizens continuing to rely on hunting and fishing. By the 8th Century AD Norwegians began to expand their reach across the seas and the Viking era was born, uniting the country. Throughout the centuries and various alliances, reformation, monarchy, constitution, occupation, parliament, and unions (dissolved) Norway eventuated to the parliamentarism it operates under today beginning  with an appointment by the king of Johan Sverdrup as prime minister in 1884.

The location and geography of Norway

Norway is located in Northern Europe on the western and northern part of the Scandinavian Peninsula. It is one of the most northerly located countries in the world and one of the most mountainous in Europe. The Scandinavian Mountains dominate vast regions of the country. The average elevation is 460 meters (1500 feet) above sea level and one third of the country's mainland is located above the tree line. The longest land border is shared with Sweden to the east, then Finland to the northeast, and a shorter border with Russia in the far northeast.