Norway has recently adopted stringent regulations for video gambling machines in an effort to save people from ruin by reducing compulsive gambling. The country has a national gambling hotline that reported a huge decline in calls when the government banned privately owned gambling machines last July. Due to be ready in September, machines will only be operated by the state lottery company Norsk Tipping, whose monopoly on gambling was upheld by the courts and the European Free Trade Association. The new terminals will be controlled remotely and will only take a prepaid card sold by Norsk Tipping to ensure players are registered and verified as over the age of 18. The system limits bets per game to $10 USD and losses to a maximum of $80 USD daily and $440 per month. After one hour of continuous usage, the machine will enforce a ten minute cooling off period before taking any more bets.