NEWS
28 February 2024
Spillemyndigheden blocks 83 illegal gambling websites
By Gambling Insider

The Spillemyndigheden, the Danish Gambling Authority, has blocked access to a further 83 illegal gambling websites.

This marks the 10th time that the Authority has made such a request from Danish courts since becoming responsible for the gambling industry in the country.

The court in Næstved agreed that all 83 sites in the report had infracted the law and offered opportunities to gamble without a licence.

Anders Dorph, Spillemyndigheden Director, said: "We have intensified our work to shut down the illegal sites, so that we now get them blocked twice a year instead of once as previously.

"In this way, we can get hold of even more sites and minimise the period when Danish players are exposed to games that are offered illegally in Denmark."

Since the Spillemyndigheden gained authority in 2012, it has blocked a total of 359 websites.

However, despite it only being February, this recent ruling breaks records for the most amount of websites blocked in one year.

The previous record was from 2022, when a total of 82 sites were blocked.

Dorph continues: "Children and young people in particular are a vulnerable group.

“For instance, many of the illegal websites have very lenient requirements for age verification.

“Some of the sites also offer games that particularly appeal to children and young people, such as skin betting.”

Out of the 83 different sites, eight of these were skin betting ones, where customers can deposit money for the chance to win cosmetics for video games.

In another effort to protect young people, the Authority released an educational campaign for under-18s, called “The One-Armed Bandit”.

Before any business is taken to court by the Spillemyndigheden, the Authority will first reach out to the operator and explain the issues, as well as ask them to rectify them.

Only once this has proven to be unsuccessful will the court process be started.