The Norwegian parliament has decided to IP-ban foreign gamblingsites to protect the national monopoly on gambling. They also claim to do this on behalf of the gambling addicts. Norsk Tipping, the national gambling company does not offer online poker. In effect online poker will be banned in Norway. GG.

https://www.vg.no/sport/i/J1g8zj/sto...spillselskaper

They try to do the same in switzerland. National casinos would be allowed to offer online games then. Although the market is way too small to run a proper poker site. Same in norway I guess.

Those govermental ****ers are everywhere the same - same ****ty candy in a different wrapper.

There is Norway this can be happening!!!

This is so ****ing ******ed. Norsk Tipping are the worst hypocrites in the country. They refuse to offer online poker because they claim to be on the side of addicted gamblers, yet continue to offer ****ing lotto and other bollocks. Granted, online poker is already dead, but it´s a matter of principle. This policy was proposed by the opposition parties, Labour, the christians, the hippie socialists and the bloody farmers party. ****ing communists.

It’s basically the same thing in several other European countries, most notably Germany since it’s the biggest market. They make an absurd amount of money with Lotto and other games like that.

On the positive side, most of that money goes to good/charitable causes or things that otherwise would be funded with tax payer money. So you could call the rake on Lotto a “stupidity tax”.

The “problem” with poker is that they can’t set the rake >50% because nobody would play that game. With Lotto, they are doing exactly that and nobody cares.

I haven't seen anything in the vote regarding poker. Are we sure gambling sites offering poker will be included in this and not only sites offering odds/casino?

The parliament, and the upcoming laws, does not make a distinction between sites offering poker and sites offering slots and pit games. The term being used is "foreign gamblingsites".

It will most definetly include poker sites, the NGA keeps a list of unlicensed sites up on their web page: List

It's not exactly up to date, but Pokerstars is on it fwiw.

However, this isn't as doom and gloom as the first poster says it is as they're only implementing a DNS-warning when you try to enter an online gaming site. All it does is give you a warning informing you that The Norwegian Gaming Authority doesn't regulate this site and you will be able to continue if you so wish.

They will also look into DNS-blocking, but that is easy to circumvent by changing your DNS to Google's public DNS. There are plenty of guides on how to so and it takes less than a minute to do. Oh, and it is free and completely safe.

What is a bit more worrisome is the fact that they're trying to enforce the Norwegian variant of UIGEA by giving the NGA increased mandate to demand reports from our banks regarding transfers to/from gaming sites/payment processors used to facilitate such transfers.

Not sure if that includes E-wallets, or just payment processors who the sites use today to let Norwegians deposit with their debit cards.

If the sites can not depend on deposits from Norway being reversed or blocked because of Norway bank regulation, then the sites will stop taking those deposits and will only mail out withdrawals in the form of checks payable to a non-Norwegian bank.

Its the same crap as in the US. Even if Stars is not DNS blocked, Stars may just pull out voluntarily.

Stars stopped taking deposits made by debit cards issued by Norwegian banks a while ago, afaik.

Most Norwegians rely on E-wallets or Paysafe cards for their gaming transactions.

when we gonna ban russia?

“We” as in you and other people who own poker sites?

Yeah, ban Russia and there will be nothing left.

Idiots from Northern Europe!

Not so fast

Stars has already set up an ewallet company in Cyprus that will be processing Russian deposits after our version of UIGEA comes into effect (on May 27).

Actually, there's still a lot of Russian fish, just they mostly don't play such boring poker formats as NL cash but choose something that fits the wide and reckless Russian soul, like MTTs or Spin & Go Max

Concur, although there are still heaps on them tarding it up at zoom micro 6 max, which kinda fits with what you are saying if you think about it.

Government interference, don't you just love it. Bunch of ***** the world over.

That is ok, people usually don't go broke with playing lotto but with poker a lot of people spend heaps of money and they go busto faster. Lotto is there to somehow satisfy the needs of gamblers without making them broke. I agree with that because in the last 10 years I saw a lot of people going broke and ruining their lives with poker (three friends got divorced). I never saw someone go full tilt mode because of lotto but it is very dangerous in poker and when that happens other people use their tilt to get their money instead of helping them.

Governments look at statistics. If they see that many people die when not having seatbelts then they will make mandatory by law to have a seatbelt on. If they see that many people die by using heroin or ruining their families with gambling they will try to reduce the effect of that. Total prohibition is not good but selective bans are ok.

I agree that poker should be banned. Many smart people just make a living by taking other people's money without contributing to society instead of using their brain to contribute to society by doing some engineering, art, software development etc.

No more Annette 15's.

Really? You must be playing completely different games, because the only Russians I have ever come across (this applies to every site and every game format I've ever played) were nitty regs or bots. Very few genuine fish come from Eastern Euro countries.

There must be a thread dedicated to this specific topic, does someone know of any?

No one dares start a thread like that and risk being branded a losing player that is jealous of the pros

Well there's my thread about why we don't see young guys rising up the stakes anymore. Not specifically about poker being banned, but some points in that thread relate to regulation/banning in certain countries making it tougher to move up the stakes.

I'm happy to create a thread like that. At the end of the day, it's just some worthless opinions on the internet from poker players with huge egos/mental issues, it doesn't bother me.

What would you recommend?

Should I cash out everywhere and stop playing immediately or
should I wait and see how this all unfolds?

If for instance, the full ban goes into effect, and I have some money stuck in different sites which I can no longer access anymore, how do I get my funds back?

Well, they talk about this pretty much every year.

I read articles from gambling sites that this is just another scare propaganda, and it wont actually go through.