Danish Gambling Sector Declines in 2020 But ROFUS Shines Bright

Denmark released their second-quarter 2020 figures for the gambling sector and the impact of the pandemic is glaringly obvious when comparing to the same time in 2019. While on the surface the figures for Denmark’s gambling sector tell a bleak tale there is an underlying story of success with regards their safe gambling program, in particular, the national self-exclusion program ROFUS.

In the face of dramatic declines in terms of wagering and bottom-line revenues online gambling only saw a rather minor increase while ROFUS proved to be a major success with significant adoption by the populous.

Lockdown Impact on 2020 Statistics

Overall, the Danish gambling sector – including online gambling, betting and land-based casinos – showed a 32.8% decline in Q2 of 2020 when compared to the same in 2019. This represents a total loss of Gross Gaming Revenue (GGR) of 1,161 million Danish krone (DKK) or €156 million.

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This is represented by the following financial movement per sector:

Online casino: +6.2%, up to 673 million DKK
Land-based Casinos: -82.4%, down to 16 million DKK
Gaming Machines: -73.0%, down to 99 million DKK
Betting: -41.2%, down to 673 million DKK

While land-based casino showed the largest percentile decline in the sector which had the biggest impact in terms of financial losses was, in fact, the Betting sector. This sector dropped from more than 262 million DKK by Q2 2020 compared to land-based casinos which only lost 74 million DKK from 2019 to 2020, despite showing the highest percentile loss.

ROFUS Wins the Day

One of the greatest fears for online gambling regulators and safe gambling advocates during the pandemic driven lockdown was the risk of fear and anxiety-driven gambling. However, Denmark’s self-exclusion program ROFUS proved to be just the tool the people needed to stave off the need to self-medicate through gambling.

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Voluntary ROFUS Registrations by year:

2020: Total registrations 24,037 – 5,887 women and 18,150 men
2019: Total registrations 21,586 – 5,183 women and 16,403 men
2018: Total registrations 17,355 – 4,162 women and 13,193 men

The success of ROFUS is clearly tied to the nominal increase of 6.2% in the online casino sector which is a great case study for the effectiveness of safe gambling messaging and a robust, easy to use self-exclusion program.