Danish regulator blocks access to 25 illegal gaming sites

The Danish Gambling Authority (Spillemyndigheden) has successfully petitioned the country’s telecommunications providers to block access to 25 unlicensed gaming websites.

The order from Spillemyndigheden was upheld by the Copenhagen City Court, with internet service providers now required to block Danish consumers from accessing 10 igaming sites and 15 skin betting sites.

“We use our authority to block websites on an ongoing basis,” Spillemyndigheden director Birgitten Sand explained. “We do this to protect the gaming providers who are actually authorised to offer games in Denmark, but also to protect the players.

“Here we are focusing in particular on sites that offer skin betting, as they often target children and adolescents under the age of 18.”

Of the igaming sites, 1xBet has been blocked alongside a range of domains operated by Curaçao-based businesses. Equinox Dynamic’s Nordic Casino, Orientxpresscasino and La Fiesta Casino sites have all been blocked, while access to Game Tech Group’s Ramses Casino and two domains for its Cashpot Casino site have also been shut down.

Also blocked by Danish ISPs are Alpha Interactive Solutions’ Casino Napoli and Mr James Casino, as well as Usoftgaming’s Ph.Casino site.

However, the majority of banning orders have been imposed on skin betting sites – websites where virtual items from computer games such as weapons or armour are used as collateral for betting. Spillemyndigheden noted that this was the second time it had secured a court order to block access to such sites, having successfully had ISPs block six sites in February 2018. The majority of the sites blocked following the latest sweep offer skin betting on the first person shooter Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, which is particularly popular in esports competitions.

The regulator said that it had refined its strategy for identifying skin betting sites, helping it catch more than in the previous round. While identifying and verifying such sites was more difficult than detecting illegal igaming sites, it said its new search strategy had proved effective, which would see even more sites identified and blocked in the future.

“We will continue to work purposefully and persistently to find and block illegal skinbetting websites, although the work needed to document and block these sites tends to be complicated,” Sand explained.

“We will continue our efforts to tackle illegal gambling and look carefully for the skin betting sites, especially, since they often involve children playing computer games that can suddenly evolve into gambling,” she said. “Therefore, we are also looking at other methods to get rid of these illegal pages, while simultaneously continuing to monitor unlicensed betting and gaming sites targeting Denmark.”