Norway to Block Offshore Betting Sites

Norway has announced this week that they're planning to block offshore gaming sites that don't carry gaming licenses through their gaming regulator.

The country filed a consultation paper through the European Commission, noting that the Norwegian Gaming Authority will have the ability to make the order to internet service providers in the country to block the DNS addresses of offshore sites that aren't sanctioned.

The ability to do so would be possible to an amendment from the country's Gambling Act which would allow the regulator to prove that the website is indeed in violation of the country's gambling laws and then proceed with blocking. A similar idea was floated last year without a block, but rather informing players that the site they were playing at was unlicensed.

Regarding the blockade, Norwegian Minister of Culture Abid Raja said, "These companies do what they can to circumvent Norwegian law. With blocking, we will be able to gag them. We will go as far as possible to get rid of these companies.

"Basically, we do not want DNS blocking. But we also do not want the gambling problems these companies bring to the country."

The plan has not yet been implemented, and Casino Listings will be updating our loyal readers as we learn more.