China analogy echoes 20 years of anti-monopoly rhetoric in Norway

SBC News’ Viktor Kayed takes a look at the debate around what will soon be Europe’s last state gambling monopoly in Norway.

With Norway’s gambling monopoly facing mounting criticism over the last year, a comment by a Norwegian politician hints at a grudge spanning almost two decades.

Norsk Tipping is on its way to becoming the last state operator that holds a monopoly over gambling in Europe following Finland’s accession to a liberalised market with a target date of 2027.

This has led to the state monopoly’s status being the centre of heated political debates between pro-reform advocates and defenders of the current status quo.

In a recent op-ed written for news outlet ABC Nyheter, SIlje Hjemdal, MP from the FrP Party, positioned herself as one of those reform advocates.

She said: “With a licensing model, we will bring home more – not less – money from abroad than we do today. Foreign gaming companies currently have a significant market share of the gaming market in Norway, and every day large sums are sent out of the country that do not benefit children and young people.

“Furthermore, the current gambling monopoly can only be maintained through extensive interference in individual freedom.

“Norwegian authorities use Chinese methods to prevent normal banking transactions, to block websites and to close citizens’ access to foreign gambling offers…It is only in Norway that we are holding on to the monopoly model that was introduced in 1948.”

Norway’s 20-year rhetoric

Hjemdal’s article as it is reads as nothing more than the typical business vs state argument. 

This is expected, given that the FrP party is generally focused on more free market arrangements being introduced in Norway.

There is, however, one particular line that grabs the attention – that being likening the Norwegian authorities, most likely also referring to gambling regulator Lottstift, as purveyors of Chinese-style censorship limiting the freedoms of citizens.

What’s interesting is that this exact wording was used again by ABC Nyheter back in 2007 – then called ABC Startsiden – in the same context of criticising Lottstift by then-editor Espen Udland.

At the time, the news outlet was in a legal entanglement with the gambling regulator over the pointers on the website linking to unlicensed operators Centrebet and Ladbrokes. 

Lottstift then threatened the outlet with financial penalties and police intervention, to which Udland responded: “Do we want Chinese conditions and censoring of information just because it [the operators] is located outside Norway?.”

It is difficult to draw any criticism opposing the benefits of a free market, or make any claims that the lines written above are an in-depth investigative expose – indeed they are very far from it.

The fact still remains that the rhetoric among critics of Norway’s gambling market’s structure has seemingly remained unchanged for decades.