The Danish Gambling Authority Cracks Down on Promoting Illegal Gambling

Spillemyndigheden (DGA), the Danish gambling regulator, has been extremely busy in August, proving its commitment to stamping out illegal gambling advertisements and promotional activities.

Director of the Danish Gambling Authority, Anders Dorph, said:

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"It is a very important task for the Danish Gambling Authority to ensure that Danes are not exposed to gambling that is offered illegally in Denmark and that does not comply with the requirements for consumer protection, among other things, set out in the gambling legislation.”

In addition to its very successful partnership with sports betting companies, which aims to combat match-fixing, the regulator has used its power to block nearly fifty unlicensed gambling sites and brought its first live casino streamer to heel.

 Twitch Streamer Fined for Gambling Content

Promoting online casino games like instant slots is highly regulated in Denmark, with its laws clearly prohibiting an unlicensed brand from being advertised in the country. In a landmark decision, the DGA fined an unnamed Twitch.tv slots streamer for contravening this clearly defined law.

The official post on the regulator's website explains:

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“Earlier this year, the Danish Gambling Authority discovered that the streamer advertised the unlicensed sites and reported the streamer to the police. The police assessed that the streamer violated the law, and the streamer was fined DKK 10,000, which was the amount recommended by the Danish Gambling Authority.”

No information has been released about who the streamer is or where they live, but since the police enforced the DKK10,000 (€1,300), the assumption is that the streamer is a resident of Denmark and could find themselves in further legal trouble should they fail to pay the fine and cease promoting unlicensed operators.

The next likely site for review by the DGA would be Kick.com, which has been aggressively promoted as a gambling-friendly site, which is no surprise given that one of its owners is the co-founder of the popular Stake Casino.

 Black Market Sites Blocked by Danish ISPs

Only days before posting the news about the live casino streamer fine, the Danish Gambling Authority revealed the steps it had taken to block 40 illegal online casinos and betting sites from attracting local players.

Anders Dorph said:

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"We are constantly trying to optimise our efforts against illegal gambling, and one of our latest initiatives is, among other things, to block illegal websites more often than before. 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."

Leveraging a combination of casino keyword searches on local search engines and reports from concerned citizens, an internal watchdog group monitors the internet for any content inducing Danes to gamble at unregulated sites.

Once an offending site has been found and reviewed, the regulator contacts the offending parties and requests they take down the illegal offer and update content that violates local gambling regulations. Should the site not comply, all Danish internet service providers are instructed to block the unlicensed website from being visited via their networks.

The recent batch of blocked gambling domains provided instant games, lotteries, and "skin betting" using CS:GO weapon skins as either the wager or the prize.