Quay level · rooms 1–30
Quay Room
The standard casino hotel room, at the water. You can hear the boats working at four in the morning, which some people book it for.
- Sleeps
- 2
- Size
- 24 m²
- Facing
- The harbour
From 2 100 NOK a night
0 h 00 Polar night · Storvik, Troms
A casino hotelwhere the sun sets in November.
Havlys Casino Hotel is a fictional Norwegian casino hotel at 69° north, on a working quay above the Arctic Circle: fifty-two casino hotel rooms facing open water, a kitchen that cooks what the boats bring in, and a seven-table casino that keeps the same hours whether it is midnight or midday, because for seven weeks of the year there is no difference.
0 h 00 The dark season
Seven weeks
without a sunrise.
Havlys is imagined as a casino hotel built for the half of the year that most hotels quietly ignore.
Between late November and mid January the sun does not clear the horizon here at all. There is a blue hour around noon that lasts about three hours, and then it is dark again. The whole casino hotel is arranged around that: warm rooms, heavy curtains nobody needs, a lot of lamps, and a casino that opens at nine because nine is as good a time as any. From late May it reverses completely and the sun does not set for two months.
- 15:00
- Arrive, in the dark
- 0 h
- 17:00
- Sauna, then the cold quay
- 0 h
- 19:30
- Dinner, and the lights sometimes
- 0 h
- 21:00
- The casino opens its tables
- 0 h · 18+
- 11:00
- The blue hour, if you get up for it
- 0 h
Most casinos work hard to hide the daylight. For seven weeks a year this one has nothing to hide.
52Casino hotel rooms
07Tables in the casino
69°North, on the quay
49Days without a sunrise
2 h 40 Casino hotel rooms · February
Fifty-two rooms,
all facing out.
Every casino hotel room here has a lamp in the window, which is a north Norwegian habit rather than a decorating choice. Triple glazing, dark timber, wool, and blinds you can open in the middle of the night to check the sky.
Upper floors · rooms 31–48
Aurora Room
North-facing, upper floor, with a bed positioned so you can watch the sky without getting out of it. No promises about the sky.
- Sleeps
- 2
- Size
- 32 m²
- Facing
- North, open water
From 3 400 NOK a night
The old loft · rooms 49–52
The Net Loft
Four rooms in the timber loft where the nets were dried, with the original beams and a wood-fired sauna in each.
- Sleeps
- 3
- Size
- 58 m²
- Facing
- North and west
From 5 600 NOK a night
Rates in Norwegian kroner, including breakfast, sauna and 12% VAT. Casino entry is never bundled into a room rate.
0 h 00 The casino · adults 18+
Seven tables,
and no clock
worth arguing with.
The casino occupies the old ice house at the landward end of the quay: one low room, seven casino tables, a bar and a stove. No machines, no screens, no music. It opens at nine and closes at one, and in the dark season those numbers are the only way anyone in the casino knows what time it is.
BlackjackThree casino tables, hand-dealt
RouletteOne wheel, single zero
BaccaratOne table, hosted
PokerTwo tables, dealer's choice
21:00 Casino opens 00:30 Last hand 01:00 Casino closes
How casino play works here →18+ Photo ID is checked at the casino door every night — 18 is the minimum gambling age in Norway. Tell the host your limit before you sit down at a casino table and they will hold you to it.
THE ICE HOUSE · 69° N
Open from nine, in a season with no other timekeeping.
No machines · No screens · Casino entry 18+
6 h 20 Casino hotel dining · March
Whatever came
in that morning.
One kitchen serves the whole casino hotel. The menu is written after the boats land and read out rather than printed, and it runs until the casino closes.
All day · 07:00–23:00
The quay kitchen
Coffee, soup and waffles for anyone coming off the water, including people who have nothing to do with the casino hotel. That is the point of it.
Plan a stay →Nightly · 18:00–01:00
The stove bar
The bar inside the casino, built around the old ice house stove. Norwegian aquavit, a short whisky list, and a longer list of drinks with nothing in them.
See the casino →24 h 00 Midnight sun · May to July
And then it
never gets dark
at all.
From around 20 May to 22 July the sun does not go below the horizon. People stop sleeping properly, the whole village is outside at two in the morning, and the casino is the emptiest it gets all year.
Departs 22:00 · 4 hrs
Fishing at midnight
Out with a local boat in full daylight at two in the morning. Cod, coalfish, and no sense whatsoever of what time it is.
Departs 09:00 · full day
Out to the bird cliffs
Puffins, kittiwakes and sea eagles on a headland an hour up the coast, with a guide who has counted them every summer for twenty years.
Any hour · self-guided
The ridge behind the village
Two hours up, and worth doing at midnight in June purely because you can. Boots at reception, no charge.
35 minFrom the regional airport
2 h 05Oslo, by air
DailyCoastal steamer, both directions
69° NAbove the Arctic Circle
3 nights Casino hotel package
The Dark Season.
The stay most people take at this casino hotel: an aurora room, three dinners, the sauna and cold quay throughout, and an introduction to the casino if you want one.
Check dates →- Aurora Room3 nights
- Breakfast, dailyQuay kitchen
- Dinner×3
- Sauna and cold quayThroughout
- Casino introductionOptional · 18+
- From14 200 NOK
? Casino FAQ
Casino
questions.
What this casino hotel page is, who may enter the casino, and how casino gambling is actually handled in Norway.
No. Havlys Casino Hotel is an invented Norwegian casino hotel, built to demonstrate casino hotel content and responsive web design. It takes no bookings, holds no gambling licence and processes no payments. The quay, the rates and the casino are all fictional.
No licensed land-based casinos, no. Norway runs gambling as a state monopoly through Norsk Tipping and Norsk Rikstoto, supervised by Lotteritilsynet. A real casino hotel with a casino floor could not legally operate in Norway today, which is why this one is fictional — and why the page says so on every screen it can.
Norway consolidated its three older gambling statutes into a single Gambling Act, which came into force on 1 January 2023. It restates the monopoly model, strengthens the regulator's enforcement powers, and keeps the prohibition on marketing unlicensed gambling to people in Norway.
Mostly through money and advertising rather than through players. Norwegian banks are prohibited from processing payments to and from unlicensed gambling operators, and the regulator can order operators to stop offering or marketing gambling in Norway. Broadcasters carrying foreign gambling advertising into the country have also been targeted under amended broadcasting rules.
Adults aged 18 and over, with valid photo identification. Eighteen is the minimum gambling age in Norway. In this concept the casino is open to hotel guests and to verified adult visitors from the village, subject to capacity.
Decide a limit in money and in time before you go over to the casino, and only play with money you can afford to lose. Never borrow to gamble and never chase a loss. If it stops being fun, stop. In Norway, Hjelpelinjen is free and confidential, and Norsk Tipping operates deposit and loss limits and voluntary self-exclusion for anyone who asks.