Special focus on supervision of bingo events

To strengthen the effort against illegal charity lotteries, the Danish Gambling Authority have focused on the bingo area. In relation to this, several inspections were carried out in 2019, including on-site inspections at gambling premises. In the future, more inspections will be conducted regularly.  

The preliminary inspections show that there are some unclarity as to the understanding of the rules for bingo events held by associations. Therefore, the rules are explained in this newsletter: 

Holding lotteries, including bingo, is covered by the provisions of the Gambling Act, if the following conditions are met: 

• The participants pay a stake (money or similar of a financial value),
• The participants have the opportunity to win a prize (all types of prizes) by paying the stake, and
• The chance of winning is entirely based on chance.

Associations must apply for a license or notify of charity lotteries to the Danish Gambling Authority if they meet the conditions. 

Rules for holding bingo without a notification to the Danish Gambling Authority

Associations can hold charity bingo without applying for a license or notifying the Danish Gambling Authority if it is held by closed associations and meet the following conditions: 

• It is only members and their relatives who can participate.
• The value of each prize cannot exceed DKK 5,000
• The selling price or the total selling price, in case that more lotteries are held the same day, cannot exceed DKK 100,000
• The purpose of the association cannot primarily or exclusively be to hold charity lotteries. 

This means that only members of the association and their relatives can participate in the events and that the entire profit must go to charitable purposes to meet the conditions. 

It is against the rules to operate a gambling club or association, but an association can hold bingo events for its members if the association primarily have other activities. This means that the association cannot exclusively hold bingo events for its members as its activity. 

In addition, it is a condition that the formation of the association is a real so that the membership of the association is not just a formality.