back to article Norway gov mulls blocking online gambling

The Norwegian government this week indicated it is considering blocking the ISP addresses of companies that offer gambling online. This follows a survey, attributed to the Norsk Tipping state gambling monopoly, suggesting that tough measures to curb online gambling already taken by the Norwegian government had failed: far from …

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  1. Nathan 13
    FAIL

    Free markets

    Only when your Government agrees.

    Norway is another country added to my "When I emigrate im not going there" list :)

  2. Stuart Catt

    there are better reasons not to emigrate to Norway

    The price of beer and the length of the winter are but two. Its one of the few airports I have been through where the duty free booze is more expensive than pub prices in the UK.

    Mind you the summer parties where all the hooch gets brought out are something else.

  3. Scott Broukell
    Megaphone

    Remember when ...

    a certain chancellor kept using the word "Prudence", yet we all received endless credit card and loan offers and peeps were self-certificating their earnings for mortgages. Where did that get us all ... mmmm.

    Now that the majority of us are in the financial mire that is a global recession, we are bombarded with offers of 10 quids free gambling and wall to wall TV campaigns to tempt us away from the hard earned folding stuff we ain't got hardly!

    Mmmm .... who makes the money all the time, and who stays poor ... mmmm.

    It's either the bankers or the bookies - both are vile depraved creatures who prey on the week and vulnerable. Ban the lot of them.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Big Brother

      You forgot the priests

      >It's either the bankers or the bookies - both are vile depraved creatures who prey on the week and vulnerable. Ban the lot of them.

      You forgot the priests and various other religious leaders, they can be even worst. They do it claim the moral high ground while still screwing you (or children)!

  4. John Smith 19 Gold badge
    Flame

    Finally an actual figure on online gambling.

    In the UK online gambling involves sites checking your name and a bank account against a list of *all* UK residents on the electoral roll.

    I'd always wondered *how* big a group this *might* be dealing with.

    Now we have a figure to extrapolate from.

    Stupid idea. Yet *another* country that thinks a firewall is the way to go.

  5. JaitcH
    Unhappy

    It's not a morals thing, it's the fact the government doesn't get the money

    At least they are not trying to pretend it's a question of morals - they simply want they couple of kilo's of flesh from the deal.

    Like governments all over.

  6. ravenviz Silver badge
    Stop

    Best interests

    Keeping Norwegian money in Norway seems like a good idea to me. Gambling is only about greed, not economy or investment, redirect the proceeds nationally to those that might need help with their addiction.

  7. Wommit
    Big Brother

    So...

    Gambling is OK _only_ when you pay tax to the local government. Got it.

  8. Combat Wombat

    *yawn*

    VPN tunnel fwt !

    1. CheesyTheClown
      FAIL

      That only works for the smart gambler

      And... well forget it... no point elaborating on it, IP filtering will simply work

  9. Steve Brooks

    If everybody did it would all come out even.

    "Keeping Norwegian money in Norway seems like a good idea to me. " So the Norwegians will be fine with implementing a block that stops all international IP addresses accessing local onine gambling sites as well. See the thing is with all these IP blocks is that they only affect Norwegians, or whatever nationality, accessing overseas websites, but online gambling is fine as long as it is people from other countries gambling on their websites. But of course they wouldn't do that......that's why they only accept bets in Norwegian currency and US dollars......oh wait.

  10. CheesyTheClown
    WTF?

    We need more laws like this... harder too!

    A few years back, I had a screaming baby at home at 8am on a Saturday morning. There was nothing but the local convenience store. So, I went there to get milk for the baby and was forced to stand in line behind two rednecks, one with a stack of lotto tickets that were stacked 8 centimeters thick and another who had a disorganized chaos of horse racing betting crap or whatever they're called.

    In short, it took more than 15 minutes to wait for these two nasty gambling addicts who rushed to the store early on a Saturday to make sure they could lose their money that week on schedule. And my child who had been hungrier than usual that weekend had to wait crying for milk because of their addictions. If I'm in line to buy a pack or cigarettes and I see a person standing with with a liter of milk in their hands, I would NEVER make them wait for my addiction.

    This all happened in Norway.

    So, my solution is simple. We have a government run organization (yes I know it's not government run, just so heavily regulated by the government that it might as well be) that provides Internet based gambling to the Norwegian gambling addicts who are too stupid to understand that the green slot on the wheel means their chances of winning are less than 50/50.

    Step 1) Ban all international gambling IP addresses (not possible, but give it a shot anyway).

    Step 2) Require ALL gambling in Norway is done over the Internet. If you're too stupid to figure it out, you are certainly TOO stupid to understand odds and therefore shouldn't be allowed to do it for your own good.

    Step 3) Ban all stores from selling ANY gambling tickets. You can sell prepaid cards to gambling addicts that have such incredibly bad credit that they can't get a VISA card in Norway (I've never heard of any such person), but make gambling like sex fetishes, something that is better done in private.

    Oh.. and if you have the excuse that you can't gamble online because you can't afford a computer or Internet connection to gamble from... well let me make this perfectly clear... "If you stop gambling since you're obviously a bad one, then maybe you could afford a computer and internet connection"

    1. This post has been deleted by its author

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Boffin

        Re: We need more laws like this... harder too!

        "It's funny how you naturally associate having to wait in line to buy milk at the only store open on a Saturday morning a consequence of the Norwegian government's stance on gambling, and not its retarded and archaic stance on opening hours of commercial businesses."

        It's actually both: the stance on gambling means that the average out-of-town kiosk is loaded up with gambling paraphernalia and buying, say, a hot dog involves waiting behind someone wanting their fix with regard to football, the stupid horse-racing or whatever else the gambling monopoly offers odds on; the stance on opening hours means that only kiosks are open early and on Sundays. (And although I haven't looked at the law, the only reason why supermarkets aren't offering extensive gambling options and cluttering up the checkouts is probably one of letting someone on the good side of some politician or other have a free run at the retail end of the business.)

        Some of the reasons for these restrictions are ostensibly "moral": the god-botherers get a few percent in an election and wear the larger right-of-centre parties like a glove puppet, insisting that opening early or on Sunday is "wrong", but no-one seems to mind getting all that cash from businesses and gambling. Indeed, there's a wider hypocrisy in Norway about gambling because even big-name charities seem happy to profit from people gambling (despite the government curtailing who could operate slot machines, for obvious - monetary - reasons), presumably swelling the ranks of people needing support from the charities that end up looking after the addicted.

        "Also, you should have fucking realised your kid would be hungry Saturday morning and planned ahead."

        I hope these words echo in your head the next time you make a mistake you didn't "plan" for.

        And article author: it's "kroner" or "crowns", not "kronor".

  11. LINCARD1000
    Stop

    This from the country...

    Whose TV channels are so filled with online gambling adverts (and various programs "sponsored by"...) that it makes you long for a good old car advert or someone trying to shill some stupid cosmetics.

    Curb online gambling? Have a look at the deluge of advertising on some Norsk channels FIRST.

  12. Davy
    Pint

    Noggie Hypocrits

    1. Norway is communist country.

    2. Norway is for Norwegians and imported slaves.

    3. They tax their alcohol so much that country folk make their own moonshine-"Hjembrent"- which is 96% and they subsequently die in distilling/explosion/fire/methyl poisoning/ethyl poisoning/driving accidents.

    4. Gambling as previously said is a State Monopoly. This means all gambling, Lotto, Gee-gees, Slots, the lot. It is therefore advertised endlessly by all media.

    5. Noggies are the world's biggest gamblers, at about US$1,000/capita/annum, double the next nearest, the Yanks and Aussies.

    6. The Norwegian Government greedily covets all income from these sources. They demanded that a Danish ferry line hand over to them all proceeds from gambling aboard a ferry operating between Oslo and Kobnhavn. They have set up "Duty-Free" shops at all international airports on the way IN to the country, to discourage folk spending overseas.

    7. If a UK vessel docks in Norway, even in Norwegian service, it is virtually stripped down until faults are found requiring work at Norwegian shipyards. (Norwegian vessels enter UK without a glance)

    8. One rule for the Nogs, another for the rest of the world.

    Beer. Another reason UK is better.

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