Denmark to Change Online Gambling Laws to Permit Foreign Casinos

Under heavy EU pressure, Danish lawmakers have decided to amend an anti-competitive section of the Danish gambling laws. The Danish Gambling Authority (DGA) agreed to update a clause of the gambling regulations to now permit licensed online casino operators to host parts of their internet systems outside Denmark only in special cases and under strict supervision. The previous regulation, by default, excluded all online gambling ventures which even partially operated outside of Denmark.

The amendments are extremely specific: “In special cases, the Danish Gaming Authority may allow part of the licensee’s gambling system to be located in a country that is not covered by a bilateral supervision agreement in accordance with subsection 2 if supervision by the Danish Gaming Authority of this part of the gambling system can be conducted in a satisfactory manner.”

These changes will open up a window of opportunity for foreign gambling operators to compete with online gambling sites in Denmark on equal terms. DGA is confident the European Commission (EC) will quickly pass the proposed amendments. Once the changes are accepted, the country’s market will be liberalized and open for foreign operators to enter.

Senior advisor at the DGA, Kristian Wind, had the following comments: “We played out various scenarios and looked at where various companies were situated today and what effect this would have on them and decided that some companies would not be able to operate in Denmark if we only allowed their systems to be located within Denmark.”

Most online casinos in Denmark are opposed to the new regulations, fearing they would go bankrupt once the mighty foreign gambling conglomerates enter the market and start bullying the locals. A senior EU Competition Group analyst addressed the complaints: “It is difficult to estimate how long the Commission will take to deal with this complaint because there is no applicable deadline. It could well take a matter of months if the Commission takes the allegations seriously.”