
Norwegian Culture Minister Thorhild Widvey is seeking to liberalize Norway’s online gambling laws.
Norway’s aspiration to legalize online gambling has moved one step closer: the country’s community Committee has required an impact assessment on dramatic legislation proposals that may completely open the market up. The committee will closely examine the experiences of other nations, such as for instance Sweden, Denmark together with UK, before drafting its own legislation that the federal government hopes to implement the following year.
Norway presently has some of the gambling controls that are tightest in Europe. Online gambling is basically unlawful in the nation, with just two state-owned companies permitted to supply restricted games of opportunity to its residents, Norsk Tipping and Norsk Rikstoto. Norsk Tipping offers games like lotteries, keno plus some sports betting, and falls under the jurisdiction associated with Ministry of society and Church affairs, which ensures that players are merely allowed to place bets at certain times of the day and imposes restrictions in the amount players are allowed to bet. Norsk Riksoto, meanwhile, provides parimutuel betting exclusively for horseracing.
Nothing to Bank On
In 2010, the government passed a law that banned Norwegian banks from processing all kinds of gambling transactions, online and live, not just within Norway, but all over the entire world, basically barring Norwegians from using their credit cards to gamble in overseas jurisdictions, even where such practices are appropriate. That means that, currently, Norwegian people to Las Vegas, for example, may struggle to pay their hotel bills because the resorts offer gambling.
Presumably this law was introduced because Norwegians who fancy a wager frequently embark on gambling trips abroad. As such, the Norwegian Poker Championships is an itinerant event that has been held, over the years, such diverse places as Stockholm and Dublin, as poker tournaments are illegal and you will find no casinos in the mom country.
All of whom cut their teeth playing on illegal offshore sites, along with thousands of other Norwegians despite this, Norway has somehow been able to maintain a thriving poker community, one that has produced numerous poker champions over the years, from Annette Obrestad to Johnny Lodden to Andreas Hoivold.
Thawing of Attitudes
Norway’s need to regulate and willingness to toss its borders open to licensed international gambling that is online, then, is a major overhaul and, as the exact nature for the legislation is yet to be drafted, it also is apparently an admission that prohibition isn’t working. Undoubtedly, there has been a thawing of attitudes within the government, specially towards poker.
A recent report, the survey that is biggest ever conducted in the Sweden, concluded that poker was certainly one of the ‘safest’ gambling games, scoring at a somewhat low danger element for issue gambling. Another report estimated that offshore operators are taking $120 million to $170 million in gross gaming revenue from Norwegian citizens each year, a sum that could be taxed by the government in a market that is regulated.
And Norway, it seems, is also waking up towards the slightly embarrassing state of affairs that needs its poker players that are best to travel abroad every year to attend the Norwegian Poker Championships.
‘I hope we can have a framework that is regulatory place in time for the Norway Championship of Poker to be held in Norway in 2015,’ Culture Minister Thorhild Widvey said recently.
Ultimate Gaming Severs New Jersey Online Ties
Ultimate Gaming has accused the Trump Taj Mahal of ‘multiple breaches’ that led to the end of their partnership; the operator that is online down its NJ operations this weekend. (Image: Ultimate Gaming)
Ultimate Gaming never took off in New Jersey, trailing far behind offerings by companies like partypoker (partnered with the Borgata) and also the Caesars/888 partnership. Now, with their land-based partner Trump Taj Mahal likely to close later this year, Ultimate is the very first gaming that is online to bow from the nj-new Jersey market.
The shutdown associated with the Ultimate Gaming web sites, including a casino that is reasonably popular and a struggling poker room, occurred at 11:59 pm EDT on Sunday night. That followed a Friday announcement that the organization had ended its relationship with Trump Taj Mahal Associates, following ‘multiple breaches’ of contract by the casino company.
‘We are grateful to the State of New Jersey therefore the New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement for allowing us to be among the first companies to bring online video gaming to the residents of New Jersey and appreciate their leadership as one of the first states to permit on the web gaming,’ stated Ultimate Gaming Chairman Tom Breitling.
Ultimate and Trump Had Tenuous Relationship
Trump Entertainment Resorts, which can be the moms and dad company that runs the Taj Mahal, has not commented on the Ultimate shutdown. Nonetheless, the closing associated with Ultimate internet sites comes after a relationship that is tumultuous the online gambling firm plus the Atlantic City casino.
In the most Atlantic that is successful City, brick-and-mortar casinos have worked with their online pc software providers to help market and promote the sites. Ultimate Gaming received few such benefits from the Taj Mahal, leaving Ultimate to mostly promote the website on their own.
That left the organization in a tough spot, which especially showed up in its poker figures. Ultimate Poker never discovered much success in brand New Jersey, with the poker room ranking at or nearby the bottom of web sites in the state, with regards to both revenue and traffic throughout its existence. The organization’s casino product (UCasino) fared better, getting over $4.4 million in revenue through this year august. However, that still lagged behind one other Internet gaming operations in Atlantic City.
Player Funds Can Be Withdrawn
Players still have several days in which to access their Ultimate Gaming accounts and withdraw funds. After September 28, Ultimate will begin automatically processing refunds to players at their registered addresses.
‘Our company is working closely with the Division of Gaming Enforcement to make sure a transition that is smooth our online gaming customers as we wind down our brand New Jersey operations,’ Breitling said.
The Trump Taj Mahal is currently undergoing Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization, plus it’s likely that Ultimate Gaming will be engaged in those proceedings moving forward. Fertitta Acquisition, an ongoing company linked with Ultimate Gaming owner Station Casinos, is listed as a creditor owed nearly $1.5 million from the casino.
The news won’t affect Ultimate’s operations in Nevada, where they operate Ultimate Poker. That site currently ranks second in terms of traffic in the Nevada online poker market, and Breitling says more improvements are visiting their software package there.
Ultimate isn’t the only company in New Jersey that might be affected by troubles at Atlantic City casinos. Betfair was formerly partnered with Trump Plaza, which shut its doors earlier this month. While the Department of Gaming Enforcement has temporarily allowed Betfair to operate with out a brick-and-mortar partner, this indicates unlikely that this kind of arrangement could be allowed to carry on indefinitely.
EU Match-Fixing Treaty Garners 15 Nation Help
Fifteen European nations have agreed to sign a treaty that is targeted at fighting the problem that is all-too-common of. (Image: edition.cnn.com)
A EU that is new match-fixing to be finalized by 15 European nations will address a major sports issue which includes continued to plague league after league across the globe. Match-fixing is a scourge that hurts fans, sports competitions, and honest gamblers and bookmakers alike.
This is exactly why fighting match-fixers is now such a button that is hot in the wide world of sports in modern times, with governments and bookmakers teaming up with organizations like FIFA and the International Olympic Committee in an attempt to stamp it out.
Now, these 15 nations in Europe have agreed to work together in purchase to stop and punish match-fixing around the world. Final at the Conference of European Ministers of Sport in Switzerland, the nations signed the Convention on the Manipulation of Sports Competitions, pledging to help promote integrity in sports in their nations thursday.
EU Nations Sign Convention
The signatories include several major nations that are european. The nations contained in the convention had been Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bulgaria, Denmark, Finland, Georgia, Germany, Greece, Lithuania, Montenegro, the Netherlands, Norway, the Russian Federation, Serbia and Switzerland.
By signing the meeting, these countries have actually agreed to improve the flow of information and improve cooperation between national free slot machine quick hits and international systems, including sports books, leagues and competitions, and governments. Recreations regulators that are betting operators will likely be anticipated to simply take more steps to combat fraud, while governments are asked to use legislation and other measures to protect the integrity of matches.
‘This convention is a major step of progress for integrity, ethics and transparency in sport,’ stated Thorborn Jagland, the Council of European countries’s Secretary General.
The European Commission called the treaty a ‘new milestone’ in the battle against match-fixing. The body played a critical role in helping bring together the convention throughout the last two years.
‘Match-fixing is a problem that is cross-border action at European degree is essential if we are to combat this scourge,’ said Androulla Vassiliou, the European Commissioner for sport.
Sports Betting Groups Approve Treaty, With Reservations
Reaction from sports organizations that are betting additionally largely positive. Groups including the Gaming that is european& Association (EGBA) and the Remote Gambling Association (RGA) arrived in support associated with convention, even if they may have had some reservations.
‘It is our hope that [the convention] will further set the tone for a more effective cooperation between all stakeholders to eradicate match fixing,’ said EGBA secretary general Maarten Haijer. ‘However, we are award that the CJEU [the Court of Justice of europe) has rightly been asked to provide its opinion on the compatibility for the concept of ‘illegal recreations betting’ with EU law, and consider that the application of at the very least this supply must be postponed before the CJEU has provided appropriate clarity.’
RGA chief executive Clive Hawkswood said that bookmakers worked difficult to ensure that no bet that is particular were banned in the meeting.
‘The regulated wagering sector worked difficult to explain why measures of the sort would not make any material difference to the integrity of sport,’ Hawkswood stated. ‘What we have is just a relatively balanced and framework that is workable which rightly seeks to reflect the array of existing national regulatory frameworks rather than replace them.’
The convention was set to enter into impact 90 days after it received at the very least five signatories, at minimum three of which were EU Member States. The convention will start on January 1, 2015 since that threshold was reached on Thursday. Other nations can be a part still for the convention; while the treaty is made to fight against corruption worldwide, nations do not need to be in European countries to sign on.
Leave a comment