The Norwegian Lottery Authority has now informed nine banks that there will be supervision of compliance with the payment intermediary ban.

According to Section 5 of the Gambling Act, it is prohibited to mediate payment transactions for deposits to and payouts from gambling that do not have the necessary licence. The Norwegian Lottery Authority has the right to make decisions and order the banks to reject transactions to and from specific account numbers and companies.

For a long time, we have focused on dialogue with Norwegian banks and financial institutions. For the first time, we have now chosen to open a more thorough inspection of compliance.

That’s according to lawyer and senior adviser in the Norwegian Lottery Authority, Rannveig Gram Skår.

The ban contributes to a decrease in problem gambling.

More concretely, it is the Norwegian Lottery Authority’s decision taken in 2023 with an order to reject gambling transactions that must be supervised. The purpose is to obtain knowledge to ensure that an effective ban is maintained.

We know that the payment intermediary ban is an important tool to protect the Norwegian sole proprietorship model. The purpose of the model is to prevent gambling problems and other negative consequences of gambling, says Gram Skår.

In the population survey from this spring, it is pointed out that stricter requirements for enforcing the ban on payment intermediaries is one of the reasons that can explain the decline in problem gambling. This is because the ban makes it more difficult to participate in gambling with foreign providers.