Children gamble away thousands of kroner on online gambling

Online, digital competenceOnline. Photo pixabay.com

The Helpline for compulsive gamblers are concerned that children are able to open accounts with foreign game companies and gamble away thousands of kroner.

– The worst case who was enrolled with us, was a minor who had lost over 20,000 kroner online, Mette Mohn, general manager of the Helpline,  says to Bergens Tidende.

The newspaper writes that it’s easy fo children to create betting accounts with the foreign companies, by using a fake name and lying about their age , despite the age limit of 18 years.

– Sometimes we are contacted by the parents of children who have been gambling online. They then  either used their own credit or parents. We see just the tip of the iceberg, says Mohn.

The Deputy Director of the Gaming Board, Linda Westbye  says that there are  substantial difference between Norsk Tipping(the Norwegian National Lottery) and the foreign players in how thorough their procedures of verifying the accounts are.

Manager of Nordic affairs in the gaming company Unibet, Peter Alling, admits that there are flaws in their system for controlling and checking the accounts. He believes it would have been easier to control the accounts if the monopoly Norwegian Tipping was repealed, so that the other players would also be able to use Norwegian ID systems like bank ID for that purpose.

 

Source: NTB scanpix / Norway Today