Quote Originally Posted by rainmaker View Post
Good morning people,

It is legal to play online in Norway. The only restriction we have is that Norwegian banks are not allowed to accept transactions marked with the MCC code 7995 (gambling related). So a gambling related company can not operate from Norway, but it is legal to offer gambling online to Norwegian customers. If a bank should accept any 7995 transactions then it is the bank who has violated Norwegian laws and not the gambling company. The responsibility lies with the financial operators to block these transactions. But this block does not mean it is illegal to play online. The 7995 block is not a problem for Norwegian customers since most casinos who targets Norwegian customers will use a payment processor who is not obligated to mark their transactions with this code. That is also why I, as a Norwegian customer can use my credit card at most online casinos who targets the Norwegian market.

But as VWM said, the Norwegian government is trying to make it complicated

I find it a bit strange that Genting uses this ("situation in your jurisdiction") as an justification for closing down their online shops for Norwegian customers.
Perhaps this is what worries them. Strictly, these processors are tricking the banks into letting the deposits through by finding a processor willing to miscode, or not code, the transactions. It seems many of the other countries added to their ban list need similar "trickery" via their processors to get deposits to go through smoothly.

I expect they want to be "whiter than white" in anticipation of a global rethink on the industry, and can say they opted out rather than resorted to trickery in order to stay in business. It is similar to the belief that the US will eventually introduce regulation, but will not give licenses to any company that resorted to trickery during the UIGEA's operation. They may feel that a small sacrifice of market regions now will reap much bigger rewards in the future.

Oddly enough, I don't see France in that list, unless they had banned France already. France is now granting licenses to offshore operators who want to operate there, although it comes with having to pay some form of tax on French sourced profits.

I wonder if they are so particular about their Asian markets, as many countries there have a similar legal situation, with governments seeking to crack down on offshore operators. However, these markets are large and profitable.