I had brought up about a year ago at our forum that Norway was leaning towards trying to ban online gambling or something along those lines. An old poker buddy of mine that used to play online poker a lot thought at the time that nothing of the sort could happen. He brought up that nothing was being mentioned in the news media or papers over there.........Sound familiar to any of you from the U.S. ?

Well last week the Norwegian parliament finally passed a proposal to ban financial transactions between Norwegian residents and online poker and Internet gambling sites. Now if that don't sound similar to the 2006 Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act that was signed by President Bush here in the United States of America, my name ain't Earl. According to pokerpage news sources, drafting of the regulations is still needed and observers say that in all likelihood enforcement of the ban will not occur until mid to late 2009. I really hate to see other countries follow suit with us in making such laws as these, and I encourage folk to voice their opinions on such matters to the proper authorities.

The European Commission has voiced their opposition against the ban and Norway's Financial Services Association as well as other financial institutions who say that many problems will arise trying to enforce such a ban. Us folk from the U.S. can tell them that they are correct .

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