Poker in Denmark The Danish government distinguishes between two kinds of gambling – games of chance and games of skill. The legality of a game depends on what category it is placed in, since games of chance are controlled by a state monopoly and are therefore illegal outside of designated areas. The government in Denmark first called poker a game of skill, then in December of 2006, they changed their mind and made it a game of chance. Suddenly, people running poker games in pubs or hotels were being prosecuted for illegal gambling.
In Feburary of 2008, the government changed their mind again, and put poker back into the "games of skill" category. The change probably occurred because poker is becoming increasingly popular in Denmark. An estimated 300,000 Danes play poker on a weekly basis. Even when it was illegal, games continued, but now that poker in Denmark is legal again, it is really flourishing. In fact, the winner of the last WSOP event was a 22 year old college dropout from Denmark.
Online Poker in Denmark Online poker in Denmark is hard to come by. Even though online gambling is legal, the only website allowed to offer it is Dansk Spil, and they only offer games of chance, like bingo, lottery, and sports betting. They have no games of skill on their website, like poker, blackjack, or other card games. Since no other companies can run online gambling sites in Denmark, there are no Danish online poker sites.
Players must therefore look to offshore internet poker rooms to play online poker in Denmark. This is tricky since the Danish government tries to stop this by not allowing Danish banks to process transactions to online poker rooms. But like in the US where similar rules are in place, there are ways around the blocks by using various internet banking services. Some major international internet poker sites even offer their services in Danish, letting Danes enjoy online poker whenever they like.