Norway forces Apple to remove unlicensed gambling apps

In a tenacious initiative, the Norwegian Gaming Authority (NGA) raised its concern about unlicensed gambling app in the App Store of technology giant Apple and eventually succeeded to force the company to remove unlicensed gambling applications from its App Store.

The NGA started its move in May, when it wrote to Apple about the unlicensed apps and requesting the company to remove a host of apps from the App Store available to people in Norway. Apple promptly removed the apps in question.

According to the App Store guidelines, the store will not provide gambling apps to places where it is not licensed. In Norway, Norsk Tipping and Norsk Rikstoto are the only two licensed operators that can offer online gambling services.

Last month, the NGA reiterated its backing for new regulation to limit the impact of unregulated gambling after a spike in advertising from offshore operators. It claimed international operators spent some NOK866m (€91m/$105m) on television advertising in Norway last year as a way of getting around the country’s gambling monopoly.