The district court has sanctioned Spillemyndigheden, the Danish Gambling Authority, to block 49 websites offering unlawful gambling services in Denmark. It is reported that the websites in question mainly offered conventional casino activities, including roulette, gaming machines, and poker. In addition, 13 of the websites were offering Skin betting services.
The Danish Gambling Authority has recently increased its oversight efforts, taking legal action against illegal websites twice yearly. Initially, this crackdown was only once annually. It's the ninth time the regulator has sought a court order to block websites offering unlawful sports betting services and casino games.
In September 2022, the regulator blocked 82 unlawful websites, the largest crackdown in its history. This increased the number of blocked casino and sports betting platforms to 227.
So far, the market regulator has blocked more than 270 websites since the government liberalized the market in 2012. In July 2023, Copenhagen City Court gave the Danish Gambling Authority the green light to block the 49 websites.
Anders Dorph, Director of the Danish Gambling Authority, stressed the significance of the Authority's duty to ensure players in Denmark don't participate in unlawful gambling practices. Dorph said some of these services don't follow consumer protection standards set by the country's gambling legislation.
"At the same time, we must ensure that the gambling operators who have a license to offer gambling in Denmark can operate on the Danish market without unfair competition from providers who do not have to live up to Danish requirements," the official added.
The Danish Gambling Authority employs automated searches and considers reports from the public and businesses to stay up-to-date with any illegal gambling activities in the market. After identifying unlawful betting sites, the regulator informs the operators and asks them to discontinue their services. The regulator will then move to the district court to get the approval to ban the websites.
Dorph noted that an ongoing endeavor is to increase the frequency of blocking illegal gambling websites, among other initiatives.
He stated:
“This means that the illegal sites are active in Denmark for a shorter period of time, because the sites will be blocked sooner after we have identified them.”
According to the DGA, a legal casino site must offer games that meet the following criteria:
