Denmark is a peninsula located in northern Europe. It borders Germany to the south, the North Sea to the west and north, and the Baltic Sea to the east.
Overview
Online gambling is completely regulated in Denmark, but it's broken up into sections based on game type. Danske Spil is the state-operated lottery, and for a long time, it maintained a monopoly over lottery gaming content, bingo, as well as horseracing. However, things changed by mid 2017, in June, when the European Commission approved the move primarily authorized by Denmark’s Parliament.
It proposed and ultimately authorized an application process for new lottery operators, expected to add significant variety to the market by January 2018. A joint effort of the existing Denmark Lotteri Spil and accepted applicants – Francaises des Jeux, Norsk Tipping and Veikkaus, allowed them to set up the Lotteries Entertainment Innovation Alliance under the laws of Norway.
It has thus been made in charge of new product development, as well as advancement of current ones, all to the purpose of offering players a more comprehensive and satisfactory experience.
Aside from that, operators are allowed to apply for licenses for all other types of betting…
… including casino play, online poker and sports betting.
Because they are so wide-open and straight-forward about how they license operators in this country, they have become known as one of the key markets that certain companies are trying to get into who are trying to influence a large portion of Europe.
Licensing
The Danish Gambling Authority (known as SKAT for short), offers licenses based on a number of criteria. This licensing process first went into effect in 2012, and they've licensed a few dozen companies since then. The only real problem with their licensing process is that the population of Denmark is relatively small compared to other European countries, but their tax rates for online gambling are relatively high.
Based on a ruling by the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) back in September 2014, the tax rate has ultimately been defined across land-based and online entities alike. Since then, land-based casinos and gambling establishments have been subject to rates as high as 70%, while interactive platforms maintained a 20% tax rate.
As a result, it's not that appealing for many operators to try to get in on the action unless it's a part of a larger-scale operation to take over a large portion of the overall European market.
Player Protections
Denmark is very good about providing protections for their players, and they only allow online gambling on sites that are licensed in the country. While this protects their tax revenue, it also protects players from playing with foreign operators that would keep them from having a way to escalate complaints if need be.
Along these lines, they are very serious about any legitimate complaints or reported problems, and players can send in their complaints online to the Danish Gambling Authority. These complaints are taken seriously, and actions have been taken against licensees due to certain types of complaints, though it's not very often since the licensees are vetted for good service to begin with.
Most recently, a draft on gambling laws has been introduced in order to provision certain mandatory limits and restrictions for interactive operators. The January, 2019 legal recommendations would see operators removing the minimum deposit limit of DKK1,000 (EUR133.9) and enforcing an upper threshold on promotional awards – up to DKK1,000 (EUR133.9). In line with the latter’s focus, such promotions would also be limited to 10 times playthrough wagering requirements should it become law.
Denmark is a peninsula located in northern Europe. It borders Germany to the south, the North Sea to the west and north, and the Baltic Sea to the east. Overview Online gambling is completely regulated in Denmark, but it's broken up into sections based on game type. Danske Spil is the state-operated lottery, and for a long time, it maintained a monopoly over lottery gaming content, bingo, as well as horseracing. However, things changed by mid 2017, in June, when the European Commission approved...
