Norway’s Minister of Culture, Lubna Jaffery, has announced a review of measures to block illegal online gambling sites, following reports of rising traffic to websites that are supposed to be restricted.
More specifically, the announcement follows an investigation by Norwegian public broadcaster NRK into unlicensed Curaçao operators targeting the country.
In April 2026, NRK joined an international investigative collaboration based on data Lilith Wittmann obtained from Curaçao’s gambling authorities in December 2025.
The broadcaster identified 782 online casino sites with some form of Norwegian-language adaptation. At least 130 gambling companies explicitly listed Norway as a target market in their applications or business plans.
Further analysis of the sites' traffic showed that these 782 pages have had over 81 million visits from Norway in the past year. One casino site alone received over 53 million visits.
These findings led several politicians to question Minister Jaffery about the measures in place to ensure systematic oversight and future enforcement.
She responded: ‘’I am now asking the Lottery and Foundations Authority to review and evaluate the impact of any changes we can make to regulations to ensure that we avoid exploiting vulnerable groups.’’
The regulator welcomed the review, noting that January will mark two years since DNS-blocking regulations came into force, meaning the evaluation is timely.
Furthermore, Jaffery argued that DNS blocking should not be assessed in isolation, but alongside other measures against illegal gambling, such as the ban on payment services.
She maintains that Norway has a solid regulatory framework yet acknowledges the need to maintain it effectively as technology develops.
However, opposition parties question both the enforcement effectiveness and the resources spent.
In Norway, the Ministry of Culture regulates gambling
