The Danish Gambling Authority blocks 82 illegal websites 

It is the eighth time that the Danish Gambling Authority has gone to court to have illegal websites blocked that offer gambling activities such as betting and online casino to Danes without a licence.  

On 22 September 2022, the court in Frederiksberg ruled in favour of the Danish Gambling Authority in all 82 cases that had been reported. It is the highest number of blockings at one time since 2012, when the Danish gambling market was partially liberalised, and the Danish Gambling Authority began blocking websites that illegally offer gambling to Danes. By comparison, the Danish Gambling Authority’s action against 55 websites in 2021 was upheld.    

“The Danish Gambling Authority was established to ensure the framework for a fair gambling market,” says director of the Danish Gambling Authority, Anders Dorph. “One of our most important tasks in that context is to protect players against illegal gambling and to ensure that they are not exposed to gambling providers that do not have a licence in Denmark. At the same time, it is very important that we ensure that the operators who are licensed to offer gambling in Denmark can run their business under orderly conditions and therefore our work to block illegal websites is very important.”  

The Danish Gambling Authority continuously monitors the gambling market to detect illegal gambling; partly through automated searches, but also by following up on notifications from citizens and businesses. If the Danish Gambling Authority assesses that a website offers illegal gambling aimed at Denmark without a licence, the Danish Gambling Authority asks the provider to stop the illegal offering. If this does not happen, the case will proceed to the city court where the Danish Gambling Authority will ask for the website to be blocked by the Danish Internet Service Providers.  

Since the current Gambling Act came into force in 2012, the Danish Gambling Authority has had a total of 227 illegal websites blocked by the city court.  

When is gambling illegal in Denmark?  
It is illegal to offer gambling activities in Denmark without a licence from the Danish Gambling Authority.  
The same applies to foreign providers who aim their gambling offers at Denmark.  
 

A game is considered to be aimed at Denmark if one or more of the following elements are present:  
• Danish language  

• Danish currency  

• Payment cards that only work in Denmark  

• Danish customer service  

• Connection via Steam (Digital distribution platform for several video games)  
 
It is also against the Gambling Act to convey access to or advertise for gambling providers without licence.  

All gambling operators with a Danish licence must have the Danish Gambling Authority’s label placed visibly on their websites and all their marketing material. In this way, players can easily check whether a website is licenced to offer gambling activities in Denmark.  

See the list of the blocked websites on Spillemyndigheden.dk.