The Lottery and Foundation Authority in Norway has revealed that recent changes to bingo hall operations may have led to a fall in revenue.
Bingo halls generated NOK 3.7bn (US$392m) in 2025, which was 20% less compared to 2024.
The Authority believes that this is likely due to a new rule that was introduced in 2025, which required players to register at the properties to ensure they were old enough to play any electronic games present.
This is because most of the properties have Belago video lottery terminals (VLT) on the premises.
Loss limits were also introduced in 2025, which may have put off some players.
Tore Bell, Norwegian Gambling Authority Director, argued that these steps were integral in ensuring players were protected through responsible gambling measures.
There are two bingo formats in Norway, bingo with helpers and bingo without helpers.
Bingo with helpers is categorised by games run by professional assistants in bingo halls.
The NOK 3.7bn figure comes from bingo with helpers, which can be split between NOK 1.1bn coming from main games and NOK 2.6bn coming from computer bingo.
A total of 2,475 organisations collected NOK 168m in revenue from bingo games, while 2,300 organisations received over NOK 34m from Belago terminals.
Bingo without helpers is also known as village bingo, where the teams themselves are responsible for running these. Local TV and radio bingo is included in this.
The official figures for bingo without helpers have not been released yet, but the total revenue for this format was NOK 23.1m in 2024.
TV and radio bingo also brought in NOK 80.7m in 2024, with 50 broadcasters receiving revenue from this.
Although bingo figures soared after the pandemic, Belago revenue has remained cut in half from the NOK 66m figures from 2019
