The rules, section by section
A casino with no Norwegian licence: what the rules say and who they apply to
Here is what the Gaming Act actually governs: who holds the exclusive right, what applies to marketing and payments, and how the Gaming Authority can order blocking. Every statement carries an address and a date of reading.
The question of a Norwegian licence comes down to one act and one authority. This page works through the provisions that come up most often when someone reads about crypto casinos, and explains what each of them governs and whom it is directed at. We pass no judgement on the individual player; we describe the arrangement as the official texts do.
Every statement below was read directly on lovdata.no and lottstift.no on 16 September 2026. The section numbers refer to the Gaming Act, and the address stands beside each part, so that you can open the text yourself. How the rules connect with the ranking of the operators itself can be seen from the home page of Kryptospill.
What a Norwegian licence means in the Gaming Act
The act in force is the Act on gambling, known in short as the Gaming Act and numbered LOV-2022-03-18-12. According to lovdata.no (read on 16 September 2026) it came into force on 1 January 2023, and the most recent amendment entered into it is LOV-2024-12-06-74, with effect from 1 January 2025.
Section 1 describes what the act is to achieve, in three points. The first is fewer gambling problems and other harmful effects. The second is that the games are run responsibly and safely. The third is that the surplus ends up with non-profit purposes rather than with private owners. The rest of the text builds on these three aims.
When people say «licence», what they mean in practice is a permission under section 4. That word — permission — is the one the act itself uses. Several of the other provisions attach to whether a gaming offer holds such a permission or not, among them the rules on payments and blocking further down.
What counts as gambling
Section 2 (lovdata.no, read on 16 September 2026) defines gambling as games where the participants put up a stake, can win a prize of economic value, and where the outcome is decided wholly or partly by chance. All three limbs have to be present. A crash game, a plinko round or a dice round with a stake in coins has all three: a stake, a possible prize and a random outcome.
What section 4 says, and whom it applies to
The first paragraph of section 4 says that gambling directed at the Norwegian market may only be offered with a permission — and that the same applies to anyone who contributes to the offer. The second paragraph exempts games covered by section 22. Note the verbs: to «offer» and to «contribute to offering». The provision is about those who run or help to run a gaming offer.
Chapter 2 also carries common rules for everyone holding a permission. Section 7 is headed «Measures to secure responsible gambling», and section 8 is called «Measures to secure safe gambling». Both are requirements on the providers, not on the players.
The monopoly: Norsk Tipping and horse-race betting
Norway has chosen a monopoly model. Section 10 on lovdata.no (read on 16 September 2026) gives Norsk Tipping, and whoever holds the permission for horse-race betting under section 14, the exclusive right to offer games needing particular public control. The section names three reasons a game can end up in this group: large prizes, large turnover or a substantial risk of players developing problems.
The name Norsk Rikstoto itself does not appear in section 10, but the Norwegian Gaming and Foundation Authority writes on lottstift.no/om-oss (read on 16 September 2026) that it supervises both Norsk Tipping and Norsk Rikstoto. It is therefore these two parties that the monopoly model turns on today.
The model is directed at the providers. It says who may run the games, and within what frame, not what a person who plays is to do.
Marketing: what section 6 governs
Section 6 is about advertising. According to lovdata.no (read on 16 September 2026) gambling may only be marketed as far as is necessary to inform about the offer and to steer the appetite for play towards responsible and safe alternatives.
The section is written for whoever makes or spreads the advertising for a gaming offer. It says how far the marketing may go, not what the reader of an advertisement is to do.
Payments: section 5 and whom the rule is aimed at
Section 5 is headed «Prohibition on the intermediation of payment transactions». The text on lovdata.no (read on 16 September 2026) says that it is not permitted to process payments for deposits to and payouts from gambling that lacks the necessary permission under the act.
The word carrying the rule is «process». It is directed at those who move the money between the player and the gaming offer. On lottstift.no/for-spillere (read on 16 September 2026) the authority puts it like this: banks are to stop transfers to and from foreign gaming companies.
For crypto casinos it is worth noting how the rule is written. It mentions payment transactions in general and says nothing specific about cryptocurrency. How a deposit in coins works in purely technical terms is explained on the page about depositing with coins.
DNS blocking: what section 32 a gives the Gaming Authority
Section 32 a was added by the act of 14 May 2024 no. 22 and applies from 1 January 2025, according to the note on lovdata.no (read on 16 September 2026). Its content is short: the Gaming Authority can order internet providers to block a website through DNS if the website directs gambling at Norway without a permission under section 4. The section sits in chapter 6 on enforcement.
How the mechanism works
DNS is the system that turns a domain name into an IP address, rather like a telephone directory for the net. When you type in an address, your machine asks the provider's name lookup where the site is. Under a block the lookup does not answer with the website's own machine, but sends you to a page at the internet provider.
The subpage on blocking under lottstift.no/for-spillere (read on 16 September 2026) describes the same thing from the user's side: anyone trying to open a blocked website lands on the provider's page with a message that the Norwegian authorities have blocked it.
Figures and dates from the authority
The same page states that DNS blocking was introduced on 1 January 2025. The authority writes that it sent decisions to block 47 websites on 12 June 2025. When we read the page on 16 September 2026, the authority gave the figure as 238 blocked websites, with 72 companies behind them. The list of blocked websites is published as a downloadable file, last dated February 2026.
The order goes to the internet providers. They are the ones that have to carry out the block in their name lookups, while the decision concerns the website offering the game.
The Gaming Authority: who it is and what it does
Section 24 on lovdata.no (read on 16 September 2026) says that the Gaming Authority supervises compliance with the requirements of the act. The organisation is called the Norwegian Gaming and Foundation Authority and is based at Storehagen 1B in Førde.
According to lottstift.no/om-oss (read on 16 September 2026) the authority comes under the Ministry of Culture and Equality. Within gambling it works among other things on the control of the state games, following up gaming offers without a permission, work against match-fixing and supervision of bingo. The authority itself writes that the aim is for fewer people to develop gambling problems.
Crypto casinos on the list and a Norwegian licence
None of the operators in our ranking holds a Norwegian permission. The licences they point to were issued in Curaçao or Anjouan, and for some of them the terms and the register do not say the same thing.
That is why a Norwegian permission is not one of the five points. The fifth point asks instead whether the licence actually stands in the register of the body that issued it, under the operator's own domain. How we look things up in cert.cga.cw and in the Anjouan register is on the page about our method and sources.
Questions about wins and the change in a coin's rate do not belong here. They have a page of their own about tax on gaming wins and crypto.
Whom each rule is aimed at
It is easy to mix the provisions up, so here they are gathered by whom they are actually written for:
- Providers of games: section 4 (permission) and section 10 (the exclusive right), together with the requirements in sections 7 and 8.
- Whoever makes the advertising: section 6 on how far the marketing may go.
- Banks and other payment intermediaries: section 5 on the processing of deposits and payouts.
- Internet providers: section 32 a, once the Gaming Authority has issued an order to block.
- The authority itself: section 24, which gives the Gaming Authority responsibility for following up the requirements.
None of these points is framed as a rule for the individual player. If you have questions about your own situation, it is the text of the act and the authority you should ask, not a comparison website.
If you need help because play has taken over, you can contact Hjelpelinjen. On hjelpelinjen.no (read on 16 September 2026) the telephone number is 800 800 40, open on weekdays from 09.00 to 18.00, with an anonymous chat open on weekdays from 11.00 to 15.00.
Sources and dates of reading
Everything on this page was read on 16 September 2026. We have used no saved copies and no one else's accounts of the texts.
- lovdata.no/dokument/NL/lov/2022-03-18-12 – the Gaming Act, sections 1, 2, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 10, 14, 24 and 32 a
- lottstift.no/om-oss – the authority's tasks and where it sits
- lottstift.no/for-spillere – the banks' role in transfers
- lottstift.no/for-spillere, the subpage on blocking – dates and figures
- hjelpelinjen.no – telephone and opening hours
Texts of law change. If lovdata.no says something else when you read this, it is that text that applies, and we update the page at the next review.