The Danish Gambling Authority blocks 16 illegal websites
On 28 February 2020, the Danish Gambling Authority was successful in an action against 16 websites that offers illegal gambling. This means that access to the websites is now blocked.
For the sixth time, the Danish Gambling Authority has gone to court to have illegal websites blocked that, without a licence, offer betting, online casino and skin betting to Danes. Since 2012, the Danish Gambling Authority has blocked a total of 74 websites in this way. Efforts to find and block sites that offer gambling illegally are an important part of the Danish Gambling Authority’s work to ensure a fair and legal gambling market in Denmark.
“We work to protect players against illegal gambling, and we also need to ensure that the operators who are licenced to offer gambling in Denmark can run their businesses under orderly conditions. That is why it is very important for us to clamp down on gambling offered without a licence”, says Director of the Danish Gambling Authority Morten Niels Jakobsen.
When the Danish Gambling Authority assesses that a website offers gambling aimed at Denmark without a licence and the site is not closed, the Danish Gambling Authority requests the internet service providers to block access to the site. The internet service providers would like the courts to decide that the offer of gambling is illegal, and the case is therefore brought before the district court. When the sites are blocked, they cannot be accessed from a Danish IP address.
All gambling operators with a Danish licence must have in an easily visible place the Danish Gambling Authority’s label on their website and on all marketing material. In this way, it is easy for players to check if a site is licenced to provide gambling in Denmark.
Seven of the websites offered skin betting in which the stakes are virtual items from video games rather than money. The Danish Gambling Authority is particularly concerned with skin betting, as this type of game especially attracts young people under 18, who, via video games, may be exposed to elements from gambling.
By the end of 2020, the Danish Gambling Authority publishes a study on young people’s relation to video gaming and gambling. The study is a part of the political agreement on new measures against compulsive gambling from June 2018.
Download factsheet about the blocked websites
Fact sheet about the blocking of 16 illegal websites