Danish Watchdog Penalizes 16 Illegal Gambling Websites

The Danish Gambling Authority, Spillemyndigheden, has blocked access to 16 gambling websites operating illegally on the territory of Denmark, the regulator announced on Wednesday.

The agency sought a district court permission to block the unauthorized gambling operations this past February. It was given the green light to proceed with the planned blocking a month later.

The regulator informed the public on Wednesday that it has carried out the task successfully in collaboration with Danish Internet service providers.

Denmark reorganized its gambling market in 2012 when it adopted a legal framework authorizing the Danish Gambling Authority to issue licenses to online gaming and sports betting operators interested to provide their services in a regulated environment.

After the reorganization of the local market, the regulator has also been monitoring the space for unauthorized operations and has uncovered multiple unlicensed activities being conducted on the territory of Denmark.

Including the latest 16 websites, the Gambling Authority has brought successful actions before the district court for a total of 90 illegal online gambling operations.

According to information posted on the regulator’s official website earlier this week, the latest 16 penalized operations included seven online casino websites, seven skin betting websites, and two sports betting websites.

Skin betting constitutes gambling with virtual items from video games under Denmark’s gambling law.

Clamping Down on Unauthorized Gambling

Commenting on their latest action against illegal gambling operations, Spillemyndigheden Director Morten Niels Jakobsen said that they “work to protect players against illegal gambling” and that they also need to make sure that locally licensed operators “can run their businesses under orderly conditions.”

The gambling regulator went on to say that this is the reason why it is “very important for us to clamp down on gambling offered without a license.”

It is part of the Danish Gambling Authority’s responsibilities to monitor the local market by conducting regular searches for potentially illegal operations targeting Danish players. The regulator does this in collaboration with the Danish Tax Agency.

When Spillemyndigheden uncovers websites that offer illegal gambling or “illegal mediation of gambling”, it sends a petition to the owners of the websites, notifying them that they are violating the country’s gambling laws and that they should shut their operations for Danish customers.

If the websites continue to service Danish gamblers after receiving the petition, the Danish Gambling Authority can have them blocked by local Internet service providers after receiving district court permission.

As mentioned above, 90 websites have been blocked after the regulator had interfered since the reorganization of Denmark’s online gambling space in 2012. The Gambling Authority has uncovered more unauthorized operations but most of them have ceased targeting Danish customers after receiving a petition, the regulatory body says.

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