Norway has decided to stick with its online gambling monopoly rather than open up the market to international licensees.

On Friday, Norway’s Culture Minister Linda Helleland dashed the hopes of international operators hoping to be granted permission to operate within Norway with the government’s approval. Helleland said the government had decided not to surrender Norsk Tipping‘s monopoly in order to keep a tight lid on problem gambling activity while ensuring gambling revenues are funneled to social causes.

Norway had launched a study of its gambling market to determine whether the time was right to abandon its monopolistic tendencies, only to conclude that (in Helleland’s words) “an exclusive rights model is still more responsible than a license model, despite the fact that there is some leakage of players to unregulated foreign players.”

Helleland suggested that the restraints placed upon Norsk Tipping by the government “would have been too costly for the international gaming companies,” most of whom would therefore “choose to remain outside the regulated market” rather than introduce such profit-prohibitive measures.