Norway Proposes Letting Norsk Tipping Offer Online Poker, With a NOK5,000 Daily Loss Cap

The Ministry of Culture and Equality has put online poker for the state monopoly out to a fast-track consultation, two years after Norsk Tipping asked for it. The proposal comes with tight stakes, loss and table limits, and an open question about whether a Norway-only player pool can compete with the foreign sites it is meant to replace.

• Norway's Ministry of Culture and Equality published a consultation on 29 September proposing amendments to the gambling regulations that would let state-owned Norsk Tipping offer online poker, in tournament and cash game formats, for the first time
• Proposed limits include a daily loss cap of NOK5,000 (approximately $520), a monthly cap of NOK10,000 and NOK2,000 for under-20s, tournament buy-ins of up to NOK2,500 and cash game blinds of NOK5 and NOK10, according to iGaming Business
• Players would be limited to four tables at once, tournament players would take a five-minute break every hour, and moving straight from poker to online casino would trigger a 15-minute pause
• Minister Lubna Jaffery says a regulated domestic offer is better than unregulated foreign sites; the ministry cites a University of Bergen estimate of nearly 90,000 Norwegians playing online poker abroad each year, and Norsk Tipping puts it at 100,000 to 150,000
• The fast-track consultation closes on 29 November, and it also proposes a duty on the largest gambling operators to report serious incidents to the regulator Lotteritilsynet

Norway's Monopoly Moves to Bring Poker Players Home

Norway's government wants to give its gambling monopoly a product it has never sold. On Tuesday 29 September the Ministry of Culture and Equality published a consultation on changes to the gambling regulations (pengespillforskriften) whose central proposal is that Norsk Tipping should be allowed to offer online poker, according to the ministry's announcement as reported by the news agency NTB and by Aftenposten. There is no legal online poker offer in Norway today.

"We know that many Norwegians play online poker. That is why it is better that we get a responsible and safer offer here in Norway, rather than unregulated games at foreign, commercial gambling companies that are driven by profit," Culture and Equality Minister Lubna Jaffery of the Labour Party said in the ministry's press release, as quoted by NTB (our translation). She described the exclusive rights model as the government's most important tool, guaranteeing that gambling in Norway is governed by responsibility "and not by foreign gambling companies' wish for profit". She told the broadcaster NRK it was natural to give Norsk Tipping, as the exclusive rights holder, permission to offer the game, according to Dagbladet.

The ministry cites a 2022 population survey by the University of Bergen showing that nearly 90,000 Norwegians played online poker each year with foreign operators. Norsk Tipping estimates the figure may now be 100,000 to 150,000 a year, with up to 130,000 active in a quarter, according to iGaming Business. The deadline is 29 November, a fast-track consultation, according to iGaming Business. The Norwegian Poker Federation has previously backed a regulated domestic product.

The Limits Proposed for the Product

According to iGaming Business's account of the consultation, Norsk Tipping would be allowed to offer tournament poker and cash games. Players would face a daily loss limit of NOK5,000 (approximately $520) and a monthly limit of NOK10,000 (approximately $1,040), falling to NOK2,000 (approximately $210) a month for players under 20. Tournament buy-ins would be capped at NOK2,500 (approximately $260) including fees and cash game buy-ins at NOK1,000 (approximately $105), with blinds of no more than NOK5 and NOK10.

Tournament players would have to take a five-minute break after each hour, while cash game players could set their own time limits, monitored with tools Norsk Tipping would be expected to build. No player could sit at more than four tables at once, and anyone moving directly from poker to online casino would face an enforced 15-minute pause. The ministry also asks whether poker marketing should be banned or heavily restricted, citing the risk that poker's cultural status attracts young and vulnerable players.

The consultation goes beyond poker. It proposes a duty on the largest operators, including Norsk Tipping, the horse racing monopoly Norsk Rikstoto and major bingo and lottery suppliers, to report serious incidents and operational failures to the regulator Lotteritilsynet, and tightens the rules on paying out local bingo proceeds to voluntary organisations.

Norsk Tipping Asked for It in 2024

The proposal answers a request Norsk Tipping made in June 2024. In a post published then, chief executive Tonje Sagstuen wrote that between 100,000 and 130,000 Norwegians played online poker at least once a quarter, at foreign sites or through free apps settled privately, none of them with adequate responsible gambling measures or consumer protection. She wrote that poker is not especially profitable for any gambling company, that Norsk Tipping did not want to contribute to a poker boom, that its loss limit would not be extended, and that poker would, like most of its games, be closed between 01:00 and 07:00.

The international operators have been leaving. PokerStars withdrew from Norway in 2023, and Unibet and 888 also removed their local offering, according to iGaming Business. Lotteritilsynet can now order internet providers to block unlicensed gambling sites at DNS level, and its first round, announced on 1 April 2025, covered 57 websites run by 23 companies, according to iGaming Business. Norwegian banks also stop payments to and from unlicensed operators.

The Product Has to Be Good Enough to Win Players Back

Norsk Tipping's own framing is that the product must be attractive enough for recreational players to move, and the proposed limits test that. A NOK1,000 cash game buy-in and NOK10 big blind suit casual players, which is the stated target, but the regular players who make up much of the offshore traffic are the ones least likely to accept four tables and a monthly cap of NOK10,000. If they stay offshore, the channelisation gain will be smaller than the 100,000 to 150,000 player estimate implies.

Liquidity Is the Question the Proposal Has Not Yet Answered

Poker is the one casino product that depends on other players. None of the published accounts of the consultation say whether Norsk Tipping could pool players with operators in other countries, and a Norway-only pool would be small by the standards of the sites it is competing with. Ring-fenced European markets such as France, Spain, Italy and Portugal have pooled their poker players for that reason, and the question is still being fought elsewhere: Canada's Supreme Court hears Ontario's cross-border poker case on 7 October. The consultation responses will show whether the ministry is pressed to address it.

The Monopoly Is Adding Products to Defend Itself

The proposal fits the pattern of Norway's policy since 2025: block the foreign sites, then give the monopoly enough product to hold the players. It follows the government's four-year plan to keep young people away from gambling, and it lets the state answer critics of the exclusive rights model that the monopoly can meet demand without opening a licensing market.

Norway is betting that a tightly limited state product will draw poker players home. The limits will make it safe; whether they make it competitive is what the consultation responses will tell.