UNITED STATES—With a plethora of new sports betting laws introduced throughout the U.S since the Supreme Court struck down the ‘Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act’ in 2018, the United States has been at the forefront of talks surrounding the gambling world.

Although each state must ultimately make their own laws regarding the legality and regulation of the process, you may be surprised to know they have already had a good deal of practice at self-regulation of gambling laws.

Intrastate iGaming

The entire iGaming market within the U.S is regulated using intrastate, rather than interstate laws, due to the federal government announcing in 2011 that the current interstate regulations were functionally illegal. On April 15th, 2011, known to the poker community as ‘Black Friday,’ PokerStars and Full Tilt ceased offering real-money games to all U.S customers.

However, states pounced on the opportunity that presented itself – by requiring specific roles and equipment be kept exclusively within state boundaries, a significant number of states could create hundreds of jobs and keep all the associated tax revenue.

The next big breakthrough?

The U.S has not yet seen a breakthrough the magnitude of the sports betting laws in the iGaming world. Still, plenty of states are moving towards fully legalising it. Eleven states have now made online gambling completely legal, including hugely influential states such as California, Pennsylvania, and Nevada.

Some of these states have even formed partnerships, allowing residents in one state to play services located in a partnered state. The key philosophy of this was to keep their new online gaming assets safe from the 2006 Unlawful Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA). Rather than targeting players themselves, UIGEA targets casinos or intermediaries who violate state laws in order to receive money from players. If no state laws are broken, UIGEA has no authority.

Comparing to Norway

Norwegian gambling laws are incredibly restrictive, even compared to the United States. The country has two main gambling providers – Norsk Tipping and Norsk Rikstoto – who have exclusive rights to distribute and market gambling and betting operations within Norway. Subject to – arguably – overregulation, the market is usually considered to functionally be a state-run monopoly, since both companies are owned by the state and revenue returns directly to them.

Moreover, these two giants do not offer the full range of games that many online gambling fans enjoy. Norsk Riskoto primarily monitors betting on horse racing and trotting, while Norsk Tipping supplies lotteries, sportsbetting, poker, scratch cards, and keno. High tempo games such as slots are strictly limited.

Even further than that, Norway is not a member of the European Union, which has slowly been pressuring members into loosening restrictive gambling laws. Those laws can infringe on personal freedoms and represent an enormous loss of tax revenue to any nations not participating. The U.K in 2017/18 alone made £2.9 billion in tax revenue from gambling-related income!

For those after a ‘norske nettcasino’

Fortunately for the responsible gamblers of Norway, there is a workaround. Although offering services to Norwegian players from within the country is illegal without a license from the Gambling Authority, and Norway passed additional laws in 2008 making it illegal for individuals to play at foreign sites, the law is all but defunct. That is to say, the law is on the books, but in practice, is not being enforced.

So, when you are looking for a Norske nettcasino, you can always be sure that any number of reputable foreign gambling operators are looking to provide you with services. This prevents Norwegian citizens from taking risks with illicit gambling operations to enjoy their favorite games outside of those the state deems ‘acceptable’.

Many of those reputable operators will even happily provide newcomers from Norway with free casino bonuses, allowing them to play the games they enjoy for even longer. Not a bad deal, right?

The real issue

The true problem with playing at foreign gambling operator sites from Norway is simply getting payment across. The 2010 Payment Act means Norwegian credit and debit cards are often declined – it acts very similarly to the UIGEA law in the U.S we discussed earlier. It is important to note this law does, like UIGEA, not target the individual. You are at no personal risk if your card is declined while attempting payment – this law is aimed squarely at intermediaries such as financial institutions.

Fortunately, human ingenuity has come up with a wide range of alternative payment methods that either have higher success rates or can circumvent the issues entirely. If ever you are in doubt about the reliability of these methods, you can read the reviews right here at CasinoTopplisten.com.