Could Norway Get Legal Online Poker for the First Time?

Norway could be on the verge of offering legal online poker for the first time, but will the players it is designed to protect actually want to use it?

The country’s Ministry of Culture and Equality has launched a public consultation that would allow state-owned Norsk Tipping to offer online poker, potentially ending years without a regulated domestic platform.

As first reported by Poker.pro, the proposal would represent a significant change for a country that has produced WSOP Main Event champions Annette Obrestad and Espen Jorstad alongside crushers such as Kayhan Mokri and Jon Kyte despite having some of Europe’s tightest gambling restrictions.

Now, the Norwegian government wants its poker product to draw players away from unregulated foreign operators and into a safer environment. Yet the restrictions proposed by Norway’s state-owned gambling operator could make its version of online poker a difficult sell for many players already choosing to play elsewhere.

What Is Norway Proposing?

The consultation, which runs until November 29, would allow Norsk Tipping to offer both online tournaments and cash games.

Norwegians aren’t exactly waiting for permission to play either, as a 2022 University of Bergen survey found that close to 90,000 Norwegians played online poker with foreign operators each year, while Norsk Tipping now estimates the figure could be between 100,000 and 150,000.

“We know that many Norwegians play online poker,” said Culture and Equality Minister Lubna Jaffery.

“Therefore, it is better that we get a responsible and safer offer here in Norway, rather than unregulated games at foreign, commercial gaming companies that are driven by profit.”

However, the proposed product would come with significant restrictions, as outlined in the table below.

The platform wouldn’t also offer around-the-clock poker, and would close between 1 a.m. and 7 a.m.

Will Norwegian Poker Players Actually Switch?

Those restrictions fit with Norway’s approach to responsible gambling, but they could also undermine one of the main reasons for introducing online poker in the first place.

Norway wants players using unregulated operators to move across to Norsk Tipping. The country has already spent years trying to restrict access to foreign gambling sites. Payment blocking has been used since 2010, while DNS blocking was introduced in 2025.

But blocking alone has not stopped Norwegians from playing poker online. Norway’s gambling regulator acknowledges that not every unregulated gambling site is blocked and that new sites continue to appear and that makes the appeal of the regulated alternative important.

A NOK 10 (≈$1) maximum big blind and NOK 1,000 (≈$104) cash-game buy-in largely confines Norsk Tipping’s offering to lower-stakes poker. Tournament players would be capped at NOK 2,500 (≈$260).

Those limits may be perfectly adequate for recreational players. Someone accustomed to playing larger games internationally, however, would have considerably less reason to make the switch.

Poker.pro raised the same issue in its reporting, arguing that the proposed stakes appear designed primarily for casual recreational play and would be incompatible with more competitive poker.

If players continue looking elsewhere for the games they want, Norway risks creating a regulated poker room without solving the problem it was designed to address.

Why Player Protection Matters

That becomes particularly relevant in the current online poker landscape. Game integrity remains a major issue across the industry, with poker operators continuing to battle bots, collusion, real-time assistance and other prohibited tools.

Regulation does not make a poker room immune to cheating, nor does playing outside Norway’s regulated market automatically mean a site is unsafe.

What a domestic regulated platform can provide is greater oversight, accountability and protection for Norwegian players.

The Norwegian Gambling Authority warns that players using operators without Norwegian authorization do not receive the same protections available through the country’s regulated system. Norwegian authorities may also be unable to assist in disputes involving winnings held by those operators.

That strengthens the government’s argument for giving players a domestic alternative but those protections only matter if players actually use it.

Legal Poker, But Not an Open Market

The proposal should not be confused with Norway opening its market to international poker operators.

PokerStars stopped serving Norwegian players in 2023, while other major operators also withdrew amid increased regulatory pressure.

They would not be returning under the current proposal. Norsk Tipping would remain the country’s sole regulated provider, with online poker simply added to its existing monopoly.

If approved, that would still represent a landmark change. Norwegian players would finally have a legal domestic online poker option.

If Norway estimates that up to 150,000 people are already playing online each year, the real measure of the proposal will not simply be whether Norsk Tipping’s tables go live. It will be whether those players actually sit down at them.

Calum has been a part of the PokerNews team since September 2021 after working in the UK energy sector. He played his first hand of poker in 2017 and immediately fell in love with the game.

Calum has written for various poker outlets but found his home at PokerNews, where he has contributed to various articles and live updates, providing insights and reporting on major poker events, including the World Series of Poker (WSOP).