Minister of the Interior Ögmundur Jónasson intends to submit a bill to parliament which would, among other things, place a ban on internet gambling in Iceland.
Gambling addiction is a matter Ögmundur has long concerned himself with. According to research conducted by the University of Iceland, some 4,000 to 7,000 people in Iceland between the ages of 18 and 70 – or about 2.5% of the population – suffer from gambling addiction.
While the idea of filtering out gambling sites by default has been brought up in the private sector, it is still perfectly legal for any Icelander to visit sites such as Betsson to wager actual money. DV reports that Ögmundur wants to see that change.
Ögmundur intends to submit a bill to parliament which would put into place stronger regulations for some forms of random lottery drawings in Iceland. However, it would also put into place a total ban on online gambling.
Details of the implementation of such a ban – especially with the existence of easily available proxy servers – remain unknown. Ögmundur intends to submit the bill after the new year.
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