Norway Prohibits the Online Gambling Payments

The Payment Act of Norway which comprises of the terms for prohibiting the payment processing operations to the illegal online casinos, last week got the royal consent. This is seen as a formality as the act had already been approved by the parliament of Norway. According to the Payment Act, any company which processes payment for the unlicensed online gambling operators will be doing a crime. This is also applicable for the service providers who transmit the payments from the players to various online casinos.

The prohibition is only applicable to the payment processors and the local banks as the laws of Norway are not applicable across the borders. The main aim of the Payment Act is to stop the actions of online gambling operators which are hosted in different countries and they service the players of Norway. According to the new law, it will also take action against the local online gambling operators who are carrying out their business illegally. The other aim which has been in the waiting list for quite years; is to eradicate the domination of the state owned gambling, Norske Spil.

The private online gambling operators of Europe are proficient enough to offer improved services and so are diverting the crowd away from Norske Spil. Although the Payment Act is backed up by the royal consent but it will executed on June 1st, 2010. Ironically, this is the same date when UIGEA will be executed in America. Payment Act has been designed the same way UIGEA has been made, which also forbids the processing of the financial transactions for the unlawful gambling.

European Commission has been complaining about this for quite some time. Payment Act is seen as a main obstruction in EU objective of creating a united market for online gambling. It has to be indicated that Norway is not the member of European Union. Still EU says that Norway belongs to European Economic Area so it is forced to obey the guidelines of EU.

Both the financial services field and the online gambling operators are not giving much importance to the Payments Act. According to Mr. Pontus from gaming company of Sweden, Betsson said that his functioning in Norway will not be influenced. Mr. Stephen, who is the associate in the gaming law practice at a law company Berwin Leighton Paisner, shared the same views. The parliament of Finland is talking about the new regulations in order to fortify the state owned gambling domination in their country.