Three in a row for state monopolies

The EFTA Court has rejected a claim by the EEA Surveillance Authority that Norway was acting solely for financial gain when it banned private slot machine operators in 2003 and handed exclusive rights to the national lottery Norsk Tipping. Limiting the reduction in revenues for humanitarian and socially beneficial causes from machine gaming was not the real justification for the restrictive policy, the Court found. On the contrary, these goals were secondary to the need to fight gambling addiction and reduce crime and malpractice.

The Court's decision is final and cannot be appealed.

Winfried Wortmann, president of the European Lotteries association, welcomed the decision, saying it brought even more clarity to two equally favorable ECJ rulings earlier this month by expressly stating that fighting gambling addiction can be best done by state-owned monopoly operators.