Is Norway really blocking eWallets? The facts

Published on 25th April 2017 by Adam

Unless they had caught the single news story in Klasse Kampen last Saturday, online casino players in Norway will have woken up on Monday to the news that banks were allegedly, on government-orders, blocking all financial transactions from online casinos to customer bank accounts.

More than that, the government had, reports suggested, blocked access to at least half a dozen eWallets, including Trustly, WorldPay, Entercash, Inpay and Earthport, and there was seemingly no selection process employed. These blocks were apparently created indiscriminately (despite online gambling being legal in the country), also locking out those who use the eWallets in question for non-gambling-related transactions.

Are online casino players being forced underground?

This news sent shockwaves through the industry and among Norwegian online casino players. “Why has the Norwegian government blocked eWallet transactions?”, “Why did Norwegian banks accept the governments decision to block financial transactions?”, “Is gambling now illegal in Norway?”, “Have I lost the money in my Trustly account?”, “Can Norwegian players still play slots, is there another way?”. All questions we heard uttered in the wake of this news.

(The article that sparked the rumours. Brække, A.J & Vollan, M. B (April 2017) Stenger spill i utlandet. KlasseKampen. Online)

But is all as it appears to be? Has Norway really blocked a whole handful of eWallets, including the most popular in the country, Trustly- a trusted payment method operating in 29 countries at the time of writing?

The Latest

While rumours circulated quickly (and understandably so, given that the newspaper article in question was written in response to a press release issued by the Norwegian Gaming Authorities), Casinos were just as quick to dispel them.

Sources we have within numerous big online casinos have been adamant in their statements that these rumours are simply not true. For Norwegian casino players it really is business as usual as far as the casinos are concerned- players can still deposit, play, and withdraw funds via the same payment methods just the same as ever before.

So Where Did This News Story Come From?

Why the press release and subsequent news story? The simple answer is- no-one knows exactly (or no-one we can find at least). Trustly, and the other eWallets noted above, are operating the same as they always have for Norwegian players, and anyone who was previously unaware of the scandal will have been playing happily since, completely none-the-wiser.

Business as Usual for Norwegian Players

Whether this fake news came from deliberate misinformation spread by media sources to scare the populous into believing online gaming was being made illegal (or, at least, very difficult), from simple human error, or something else entirely, is not clear. Needless to say, as and when more information surfaces, updates will be available on site.

Until then, it’s a case of ‘as you were’, so we’ll just leave this link right here in case you fancy celebrating with a bunch of free spins. Yes, we went there.