Home > Legal & compliance > Danish regulator victorious in illegal bingo court case

Danish regulator victorious in illegal bingo court case

| By Robert Fletcher
Denmark’s regulator Spillemyndigheden was victorious in a court case against an association that was offering bingo and banko to members without the relevant licence.
Majestic

The regulator investigated the unnamed organisation at its premises in Odense in 2019 and found it had been offering both game types illegally to its members on a daily basis for a number of years.

Denmark has a monopoly on bingo and banko games, with state-owned Danske Spil being the only operator permitted to offer these services, except for games run by a non-profit lottery for the benefit of good causes.

The case was heard in court in Odense on 2 February, with Spillemyndigheden emerging victorious after the court ruled the Odense-based association breached national gambling laws by offering the games to members.

As such, the association was ordered to pay a fine of DKK15,000 (£1,784/€2,014/$2,153) as well as court costs.

The ruling comes after Spillemyndigheden last week revealed that gambling revenue in the Danish market increased 7.9% year-on-year in 2022 after a rise across all sectors.

Total revenue for the year stood at DKK6.72bn, up from DKK6.23bn in the previous 12-month period. Online casino remained the primary source of gambling revenue during the year, with this sector generating DKK2.90bn in revenue, a year-on-year increase of 3.2%.

Sports betting revenue also increased by 3.9% to DKK2.32bn, while land-based slots revenue jumped 47.6% to DKK1.15bn for the year.

Spillemyndigheden also reported a 58.6% rise in revenue from licensed land-based casinos to DKK3490m.

Subscribe to the iGaming newsletter