Online casino Norwegian – Top Norsk online casino 2023

Gambling has an interesting history in Norway. Up until 2004, the country was filled with slot machines which can be found literally everywhere.

Gambling was a quite popular hobby and the government was gaining more than 26.000.000.000 NOK tax revenue from them. There were no local operators for online gambling but Norwegian players were free to play at top casino sites online, as long as they were operating from abroad.

In 2004, the government started to restrict new slot machines and completely banned them in 2007. They still exist at some places but are called IVT (interactive video terminal) nowadays and require a special card issued by the government to play.

The Norway Gaming Act granted the rights to organize and offer online gambling to two official agencies: Norsk Tipping and Norsk Riksototo. These agencies are the only institutions that can offer online gambling services and as of 2023;

• Sports betting and horse race betting are legal in Norway.
• Lotteries are legal in Norway.

And that’s it. All other forms of gambling, including online casinos are illegal in the country. So the answer to is online casino legal in Norway question is no, unfortunately.

Online gambling laws in Norway are quite restrictive and does not allow any foreign operator to set up shop in the country.

Norwegian citizens can apply for temporary licenses for playing poker and bingo at their homes (which are called gaming clubs) but they cannot offer these services to other people.

In addition, each gaming club cannot have more than 10 participants. Basically, as long as you play with your friends (and you don’t have more than 10 friends), you are good. And this applies only to poker and bingo games – blackjack, for example, is still illegal.

Unfortunately, these prohibitions apply to ISPs (internet service providers) and banks too. Banks in Norway are prohibited from accepting payments from and to online casinos. So an online casino withdraw to bank account will not be possible in Norway.

All financial transfers that fall into this category will be blocked automatically. In addition, ISPs must censor foreign casino sites.

As can be understood, these are not good news but remember that:

• Joining and playing at the best casino internet sites are not illegal, just restricted. And it is possible to bypass these restrictions.  
• There are no sanctions against Norwegian players who prefer to play at casino sites abroad. The gaming laws and sanctions are for operators only.

In other words, you can still play at Norway online casinos. Sure, it will be a little challenging when compared to other countries and you must know what you are doing. Many other countries are in the same exact situation Norway is. New Zealanders can only play at online casino New Zealand websites located abroad.

Luckily, we are here to help you: This guide will inform you about everything you need to know to play at Norway online casinos and suggest the best ones.

For the reasons explained above, you should use one of these two methods for online casino sites in Norway:

• E-Wallet Services: The best options will be Neteller and Skrill. ECO Payz with the EcoCard online casinos are another suitable method. The reason why these services work is that when you transfer your balance from the e-wallet service to your bank account, the sender is listed as the e-wallet service provider, not the online casino norwegian. For example, your local bank will see the sender info as “Neteller” only and won’t be able to understand it is actually an online gambling payment. For more practicality, you should get debit cards of these services: They remove the need of transferring your money to a bank account or a credit card. With those debit cards, you can withdraw money from any ATM in Norway. In this regard, stay away from PayPal – it is known to block online casino transfers too.
• Cryptocurrencies: If you know how they work, cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin and Ethereum are the best casino payment methods to use at the best Bitcoin casinos, especially if you own a CryptoPay wallet (check our CryptoPay casino guide for further details). They work outside of the banking system and on the blockchain, so they cannot be tracked in any way. Cryptocurrency casinos are legal in Norway and the government won’t be able to see/track/block your transfers in any way. Since both the sender and receiver information is encrypted, nobody can find the source of your winnings. Through exchange sites, you can convert cryptocurrencies to Fiat currencies. This is the best method, to be honest, but cryptocurrencies are not supported by many online casinos and they require technical knowledge to an extent.  

You can, of course, use bank transfers, credit cards, and any other methods to make online casino transfers (such as Google pay casino or Payforit casino) but they will mostly be blocked by the government. If you do not want to get “caught”, prefer either e-wallets or cryptocurrencies.

Pre-paid vouchers are another good alternative and at  PurplePay casino Norway sites you can make deposits using PurplePay as an intermediary. Another similar intermediary company for payments is Klarna/Sofort at Klarna casino sites.

Once you become a member of a casino Norway site, the games you can play won’t be any different from regular online casino games. However, they won’t be restricted too: You will have access to them all.

In this regard, here are the most common game types you can find at online casinos Norway.

• Slot Machines. As known, the best online slots are the most popular game category at casino sites and Norway online casinos are no exception. You will find the most number of options under this category and there will be dozens of themes to choose from. All slot games are fine, but for an “old-school” experience, you can pick classic fruit machines that have fewer symbols and pay lines. Don’t forget to try your chances at the most popular slot games!
• Card and Table Games. This category is quite big and includes many options such as hold’em poker, video poker, blackjack online games, baccarat, roulette online games and keno. We recommend sticking with the European variant if you plan on playing roulette, as its rules slightly favor the players. And if you are looking for the best odds and highest RTP rates, blackjack and video poker games should be your choice. In fact, some of the video poker machines offer positive RTP rates, which is incredibly rare.  
• Live Dealer Games. This category includes card and table games that can be played against a real dealer. Yes, by joining a live broadcast, you can play these games against a real person with other players just like you. Live dealer online casino games offer authentic casino gaming experience and a chance to socialize, we highly recommend trying them. You will be able to find all variants of roulette, poker, blackjack, and baccarat in this category. Talking about baccarat, you might want to learn how many betting positions are there on a baccarat table.
• Casual Games. Simple platform games, scratch cards (find more about them in this article where we answer the question “are scratch cards worth it?”), and virtual betting options fall into this category. As the name suggests, these games should be played for fun only. Don’t expect to become rich but expect to have lots of fun: This is the basis of casual games.

Note that you can access all of these features and games with your mobile devices too. While preparing our online casinos Norway reviews, we tested each and every one of them on mobile operating systems.

Some of them offer a separate app but this is no mandatory: You can simply visit the online casino Norway site from your mobile device and use the mobile version of the website too.

What is the gambling tax rate in Norway?

As explained above, some forms of gambling (such as sports betting) are legal in Norway, and winnings from these activities are subject to a flat 23% tax rate. If you win the lottery, you will be giving 23% of your winnings to the government. There are only two exceptions to this rule:

• If you are a professional gambler (if you gamble as a profession), you still pay 23% tax but you can deduct your losses from the total tax amount. Since you will also be losing time to time, you will be paying much less taxes.
• If the winnings come from a gambling organization held for humanitarian goals (such as helping children) there will be no taxes.

Do I need to pay taxes for my winnings at foreign casino sites too?

Oh yes. The government of Norway is perfectly aware that its citizens play at foreign casino sites and make profits. The law specifically states that “winnings made from foreign gambling organizations are subject to this tax rate too”.

So, as long as you make a profit in an online casino Norway site, it will be subject to taxes, no matter where you played.

Do I need to use a VPN to access your recommended Norway online casino sites?

At some point, probably. As we mentioned above, the government of Norway has a “blacklist” of foreign casino sites and the websites on that list are censored by ISPs.

The law says “all online casinos that are not located in Norway” will be censored, and since there can be no online casino sites in Norway legally, almost all foreign operators will be censored.

Try your chances by simply visiting the websites we recommend: If they launch without a problem, there is no need to use a VPN service. But if you cannot open them (or they get censored in the future) you can use a VPN service too.

Pick free services such as WindScribe and TunnelBear, as online gambling does not require big bandwidths.

What is the average deposit and withdrawal times at online casinos in Norway?

This depends on the casino and payment method you selected. Almost all deposits are instant, no matter which method you use. When it comes to withdrawals, you should expect the following time periods:

• E-wallets: 24 hours
• Cryptocurrencies: 4-6 hours

Of course, if you did not verify your identity, an additional 24 hours will be needed for this process.

Still, you can always try your luck at instant withdrawal casino sites or at Trustly casinos, Trustly being a very popular payment method in Norway. We also recommend trying a Rapid Transfer casino Norway-based site or a Kluwp casino Norway-based site. Here’s our ultimate Kluwp casino guide.