A bill to amend the Danish Gambling Act that would introduce wide-ranging advertising restrictions and hand the regulator improved powers to fight the black market has been reintroduced in Denmark.
Submitted on 7 October, The Danish Gambling Act L 37 has been put forward by minster of tax and growth Jakob Engel-Schmidt. The amendment is effectively a resubmission of a previous set of changes under L 127.
Under the Danish constitution, any bill not passed or fully adopted when a new election is held lapses. L 127 was introduced at the start of March, with the general election set for end of the month.
The general election was held on 24 March and on 3 June, and the result saw the formation of a minority coalition government led by Mette Frederiksen’s Social Democrats. It will be her third term as prime minister.
Should Engel-Schmidt’s new proposals become law, the changes to the regulations will come into effect throughout 2027, some as early as 1 January and others as late as 1 October.
Amendments to marketing laws would apply from 1 July, with Danish gambling lawyer Morten Ronde taking to LinkedIn to call the proposed change “the most far-reaching tightening of the Danish market since 2012”.
The amendments include a headline whistle-to-whistle ban on advertising around live sports broadcasts.
Engel-Schmidt’s proposal notes that such a policy is likely to see the tax take from the industry slump by DKK25m (£2.8m) per year.
“The ban is expected to reduce the total consumption of taxable gambling on the Danish market. Consumption is expected to shift partly to other taxable consumption and partly to non-taxable gambling consumption on the unregulated market,” the proposal also states.
Operators would not be allowed to use “authorities”, eg influencers and celebrities, or anyone under the age of 25 who would appeal to under-18s, in marketing materials.
Influencers are defined as anyone with “more than 10,000 followers on a social media platform or more than 100,000 views across platforms”.
Welcome bonuses, free spins and free bets would also be outlawed as part of the changes.
Black market enforcement
As per the proposed bill, the Danish Gambling Authority would be handed improved website blocking powers to target affiliates promoting unlicensed operators.
Under existing laws, operating without a licence comes with a penalty of up to one year in prison and a fine based on a firm’s gross gaming revenue (GGR) earned from Danish players.
A scaled fine framework for licensed operators has also been included in the bill across eight bands of GGR. For example, a company reporting GGR of under DKK5m would face a maximum penalty of DKK300,000, while for a firm with GGR of over DKK500m, the maximum punishment would be DKK3m.
H2 Gambling Capital puts Denmark’s channelisation rate at 77%. The marketing intelligence firm expects online GGR in the Nordic nation to hit €1.7bn in 2031.
The bill is scheduled for a first reading on 22 October.
The post Denmark reintroduces Gambling Act amendment with tighter ad restrictions first appeared on EGR Intel.
Changes include a whistle-to-whistle ban on advertising around live sport, which bill advocate says could lead to a DKK25m decline in tax take and leakage to the black market
The post Denmark reintroduces Gambling Act amendment with tighter ad restrictions first appeared on EGR Intel.