Danish Authorities Forge Agreement to Combat Illegal Gambling Marketing

Three organisations in Denmark are forming a partnership to combat the illegal gambling market. The Danish Consumer Ombudsman, the Gambling Advertising Board, and the Danish Gambling Authority are the three organisations. 

Their combined efforts will work towards streamlining activities and preventing redundancies addressing breaches by gambling firms. The partnership will also prevent duplication of effort and strengthen the overall coordinated effort.

The agreement has assigned specific responsibilities to each authority. 

Assigned Responsibilities

The Consumer Ombudsman will oversee the adherence of gambling companies to the Marketing Act and other consumer protection laws. The Danish Gambling Authority will enforce the Gambling Act's rules on game marketing, including sales promotions.

Consumer Ombudsman Torben Jensen said: “Our new cooperation agreement with the Gambling Authority and the Gambling Advertising Board strengthens our supervision of gambling companies’ marketing. The agreement involves better internal communication, ensures coordination and prevents duplication of work, which benefits consumers.”

Both the Consumer Ombudsman and Danish Gambling Authority will refer complaints to the Gambling Advertising Board. The forwarded issues breach the industry’s code of conduct but do not the regulatory rules.

Finally, the Gambling Advertising Board, consisting of industry players, will attend to complaints regarding marketing practices that breach the industry's code of conduct, which promotes social responsibility, protects vulnerable groups, and mitigates gambling addiction. 

Additionally, the Gambling Advertising Board will refer cases to the Consumer Ombudsman or the Gambling Authority. This is in the case that companies do not comply with the board’s critiques or breach the authorities' regulations.

Information Sharing

As part of the agreement, the three organisations will regularly share relevant case information and hold annual meetings to promote coordination. The Danish Gambling Authority will also host their third annual Anti-Money Laundering (AML) training scheduled for 31 October 2024. 

This training follows two previously held in November 2023 and April 2024. The training aims to enhance operational knowledge and experience sharing among entities impacted by AML regulations. 

Finally, the Danish Gambling Authority will execute new licensing rights for suppliers. The new regulations are slated for 2025.

The regulations result from a recent report showing a reduction of  6.9% in monthly gross gaming revenue (GGR) in Denmark. The 6.9% reduction amounted to DKK 595 million ($86.4 million) for April.

Conclusion

The new partnership will provide a concerted effort toward tackling illegal marketing practices, enable cross-organisational information sharing and facilitate training to enhance the response toward money laundering.