Norwegian regulator hails drop in participation in unlicensed offshore gambling
Atle Hamar has welcomed data on the Norwegian gambling market that suggests fewer players are using unlicensed operators, while more are playing with the state monopoly online casino.
Norway.- With the online gambling licensing in Finland open ahead of the launch of a competitive regulated market from July 2027, Norway increasingly looks like an outlier in Europe with its state monopoly on the sector, although Iceland and Luxembourg also have restricted frameworks.
For now, proposals to change that have received little momentum, with regional authorities protective of state-controlled operators because of the funds it generates for sports in particular. Meanwhile, the state gambling regulator Lotteritilsynet argues that the monopoly system is working.
It argues that the state operator Norsk Tipping is “taking players from the offshore market year after year”. Its data suggests that 2.6 per cent of Norwegian gamblers played with unlicensed foreign companies in 2025, down from 3.8 per cent in 2024.
The regulator was particularly enthusiastic about the rise in the number of online casino players at Norsk Tipping’s KongCasino. It says customer numbers have doubled in the past five years, from 200,000 in 2020 to 400,000 by the end of 2025.
In the last year alone, KongKasino has gained almost 50,000 new customers. Norsk Tipping is also seeing an increase in casino gambling among young people, and especially among 18-year-olds who are creating gambling accounts for the first time, the regulator said.
That said, estimates show that Norwegian players lost NOK 1.9bn (€173.5bn)to offshore gambling operators in 2025. This is 500 million kroner more than the average estimate for 2024, although Lotteritilsynet stresses that it has changed the way that it calculates estimates.
The regulator continues to see unlicensed offshore competition as the cause of problem gambling.
“It is the foreign online casinos that mainly create gambling problems in Norway, both population surveys and figures from the Helpline show. Norsk Tipping’s games are strictly regulated, but the Norwegian Gambling Authority is still concerned about the increase in casino games,” Lotteritilsynet director Atle Hamar said.
“We are particularly concerned about the interest in casino games among young people, and whether more will have gambling problems in a few years. There is a risk that more players will gamble more, even if they are stopped by the loss limits at Norsk Tipping, and that they will end up with illegal, foreign operators.”
Hamar said he was particularly concerned about offshore operators accepting players under 18.
“Some are already experienced players when they are 18 years old and create a betting account with Norsk Tipping. Some young people are introduced to gambling through gaming, and the foreign companies market via influencers who reach young target groups,” he said.
Lotteritilsynet has proposed several measures in a bid to prevent the growth of KongKasino from leading to more people developing gambling problems in Norway, it said. One of them is to introduce a series of questions that must be completed in order to play. The idea is that this will provide information that can help players make wise choices when faced with risky games, such as casino games.
Last year, Norsk Tipping made it easier for players to block themselves from gaming. This has led to seven times more players self-excluding, the regulator said.
