Stricter gambling regulations in Norway for ads on national TV
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Medietilsynet, the Norwegian Media Authority, has ordered the country’s largest TV distributors to stop advertising from foreign igaming companies. The measure comes amid a general suppression of gambling related ads in the Scandinavian nation after a widespread investigation last year that revealed breaches on Discovery Network channels FEM, MAX, VOX and Eurosport.
Other large channels in the country, such as Telenor, RiksTV and Allente, have also been instructed to use their agreements with their operating company Discovery to make sure that: “TV adverts no longer contain marketing for gambling companies that are prohibited in Norway.” In total, five large TV distributors have been ordered to comply with the new set of rules.
The deadline to comply with the measures is set on August 15, 2022, and not doing so will lead to “severe financial reactions.” In Norway, the government still applies a state monopoly on gambling, with Norway’s gambling law administered by the Norwegian Lotteries Authority. As a consequence, under the current law, advertising from unlicenced casinos is prohibited, as a way to “protect people in the country with gambling problems.” Yet, Medietilsyne claims the country has seen “large amounts of gambling advertising” on TV, primarily from “foreign based operators.”
Empowered by the January 2021 amendment to the nation’s Broadcasting Act, Medietilsyne now has the full power to order TV distributors to prevent unlicenced gambling companies from marketing their products or services in Norway.
Mari Velsand, director of Medietilsyne stated the following about the measures: “Overall, Medietilsyne’s enforcement of the provisions of the Broadcasting Act, the Lottery Authority’s effective enforcement of the banking service ban and close follow-up against widely used online platforms such as Google and Facebook, make offshore companies’ access to the Norwegian market a difficult challenge. This is a development we were hoping for, which society benefits from in general – and most of all the most vulnerable among us.”
Currently, the Norwegian state-owned company Norsk Tipping and private trust Norsk Rikstoto are the only casinos to legally offer gambling services in the country. The current set-up has already created significant friction between the Norwegian gambling authority and foreign companies who want to enter the market under the European Single Market, claiming the current law contradicts the European law that allows other operators in the EU to offer their services in other European countries. It is however still possible to play in online casinos in Norway, with Rizk Casino Norway being one of the most popular brands in the country. Other brands have stated they want to enter the Norwegian market as well.
Last week, the Norwegian Ministry of Culture and Gender Equality launched a consultation on the Scandinavian country's new proposed gambling law. The new Gaming Act replaces the previously mentioned Lottery Act, the Totalisator Act and the current Gaming Act. The bill is open for comments from interested parties until August 5, 2022. While much of the law simply consolidates aspects of the previous three existing laws, updated enforcement rules seem to be on the way. This predominantly concerns preventing foreign brands from entering the market and does not seem to offer market space to new operators.
It is not the first time Eurosport has breached the rules as a similar situation occurred in Finland last year. Finland's National Police Council (NPB) imposed a €800,000 fine on Eurosport 1. The reason for the sanction was the frequent broadcasting of gambling-related advertisements in Finland. On September 16, 2021, the NPB banned Eurosport from promoting betting services in mainland Finland through TV commercials. The NPB noted that Eurosport had been promoting gambling services on a large scale through the TV channel Eurosport 1 for several years. The gambling services were promoted to viewers during TV commercial breaks, also during live sports events.
Before imposing the marketing ban, Finland's National Police Council informed Eurosport that only Veikkaus (the Finnish state-operated gambling provider, ed.) has the exclusive right to promote gambling services in Finland. This makes the Finnish gaming industry comparable with the Norwegian.
