Is online gambling legal in Denmark?
Denmark partially liberalized gambling on 1 January 2012. Spillemyndigheden (the Danish Gambling Authority) licenses betting and online casino for up to five years to companies established in Denmark or elsewhere in the EU/EEA, while Danske Spil and three other operators keep the lottery monopoly. Online casino and betting pay 28% of gross gaming revenue (GGR), every player must set a deposit limit and pass a ROFUS self-exclusion check, and since 1 January 2025 casino games may only come from B2B-licensed suppliers. The October 2025 Spilpakke 1 agreement would ban advertising around live sport and free-play welcome bonuses, but its bill lapsed at the March 2026 election and had not been re-introduced as of September 2026.
| Vertical | Status in Denmark |
|---|---|
| Online casino | Regulated |
| Sports betting | Regulated |
| Online poker | Regulated |
| Lottery | Monopoly |
| Social casino (free to play) | Permitted |
Regulated: Private operators can hold a local licence for online casino and/or betting.
Who regulates gambling in Denmark?
- Spillemyndigheden (Danish Gambling Authority) (SPM) — Issues betting, online casino, land-based and B2B supplier licences, runs ROFUS and the StopSpillet helpline, supervises marketing, certification and anti-money-laundering compliance
- Skattestyrelsen (Danish Tax Agency) (SKAT) — Collects the gambling duty and receives licensees' monthly GGR returns
Denmark gambling licence: how it works
Spillemyndigheden grants separate licences for betting and for online casino (roulette, baccarat, punto banco, blackjack, poker, online bingo and slots), each for up to five years, or a combined application covering both. Applicants may be established in Denmark or another EU/EEA state; companies from outside the EEA appoint an approved representative in Denmark. The file includes fit-and-proper documentation, a budget and certification of the gambling system by an accredited testing company under Spillemyndigheden's certification program, after which the system is connected to the authority's SAFE data storage. Since 1 January 2025 a B2C licensee may only offer casino games, or outsourced bet settlement, supplied by a holder of a Danish B2B supplier licence. A revenue-restricted one-year licence exists for operations with GGR up to DKK 1 million.
What an applicant needs
- Company established in Denmark or another EU/EEA state; other applicants appoint an approved Danish representative
- Fit-and-proper documentation for owners and management, plus a business plan and budget
- Certification of the gambling system, games and RNG by an accredited testing company, repeated at prescribed intervals
- Connection to Spillemyndigheden's SAFE data storage for game and transaction reporting
- MitID identity verification, an 18+ check and a ROFUS lookup before every login
- Player-set deposit limits, bonus terms within the statutory caps and responsible-gaming information on the site
- Casino content only from Danish B2B-licensed suppliers or the licensee's own registered games (since 2025)
- Anti-money-laundering program under the Danish AML Act
Gambling taxes in Denmark
- Operators: 28% of GGR for online casino and betting (since 1 January 2021; 20% before), confirmed at 28% for 2026 and 2027 in the Ministry of Taxation rate table, plus 22% corporate income tax. Land-based casinos pay 45% of GGR plus 30% above a progression threshold (DKK 5,020,100 in 2026); slot machines pay 41%.
- Players: None on winnings from operators licensed in Denmark or another EU/EEA state; winnings from operators licensed outside the EU/EEA are taxable as personal income.
- Also: Licensees also pay the GGR-banded annual supervision fee. Monopoly lotteries pay a 15% duty on prizes above DKK 200.
Advertising, player protection, KYC and payments
Advertising
Advertising is permitted but regulated: it must be factual, may not target minors or present gambling as a solution to money problems, and must refer to ROFUS and the StopSpillet helpline (online since 2020, betting since October 2023). Bonuses may not exceed DKK 1,000 in value and players must have at least 60 days to meet the conditions. Spilpakke 1 (agreed 24 October 2025, not yet law) adds a ban on TV and streaming ads from ten minutes before to ten minutes after live sport, no ads on public transport or within 200 meters of schools, no authority figures or people under 25 in ads, liability for influencers and affiliates, a ban on free-play welcome bonuses and a ban on turnover-based affiliate commission.
Responsible gaming
Every player sets a daily, weekly or monthly deposit limit before playing, with a 24-hour delay before an increase takes effect (48 hours, plus a mandatory loss limit and a statutory duty of care, under Spilpakke 1). ROFUS offers temporary (24 hours, one, three or six months) or permanent self-exclusion across all licensed sites, land-based casinos and betting shops; 68,026 Danes were registered at the end of 2025 and about 73,500 by 1 August 2026.
Identity and age verification
Players register with MitID, the national digital ID, so identity and age (18+) are verified at onboarding, and ROFUS is checked at every login. Gambling operators are obliged entities under the Danish AML Act, with customer due diligence, transaction monitoring and reporting to the Money Laundering Secretariat.
Payments
Licensees may not grant credit to players. Deposits come by payment card, MobilePay or bank transfer from instruments in the player's name, and winnings are paid back to the player's own account. Crypto is not used by Danish licensees in practice. Unlicensed sites are DNS-blocked by court order at Spillemyndigheden's request.
Notable restrictions
- Bonus value capped at DKK 1,000 with at least 60 days to meet the conditions
- Mandatory player-set deposit limit before the first bet
- Marketing must reference ROFUS and StopSpillet
- No credit to players and no third-party payment instruments
- Casino games only from Danish B2B-licensed suppliers since 1 January 2025
- Lotteries and scratch cards reserved to the four monopoly licensees
Denmark iGaming market: size, players and payments
Total GGR of DKK 11.5 billion in 2025, down 1% on 2024; online casino DKK 4,309 million (38% of the market, up 12.1%) and betting DKK 2,130 million (19%, down 11.5%). Online channels produced 73% of GGR (Spillemyndigheden, The Gambling Market in Numbers 2025).
68,026 people were registered in ROFUS at the end of 2025, about 12,000 more than a year earlier; men make up over 78% of registrations (Spillemyndigheden).
Mobile devices generated 73% of online betting and casino GGR in 2025, up from 11% in 2012 (Spillemyndigheden).
At the end of 2025 there were 27 betting and 41 online casino licences, held by state-owned Danske Spil and international groups such as Bet365, Kindred (Unibet), Betsson and LeoVegas; four operators hold lottery monopolies and seven land-based casinos are licensed.
Timeline: how Denmark got here
- 2010-06Folketing adopts the Gambling Act, partially liberalizing betting and online casino
- 2012-01Licensed market opens on 1 January; Spillemyndigheden launches ROFUS
- 2020-01Online licensees must reference ROFUS in all marketing
- 2021-01GGR duty on online casino and betting rises from 20% to 28%
- 2025-01B2B supplier licence becomes mandatory for casino game suppliers and bet-settlement providers
- 2025-10Spilpakke 1 agreement signed by ten of eleven parties on 24 October
- 2026-02Bill L 127 introduced on 25 February; it lapses when a general election is called the next day
- 2026-03General election on 24 March; the gambling bill must be re-introduced by the new government
Outlook
The Spilpakke 1 measures have cross-party backing and are expected to return in a new bill once the new Folketing takes them up; the original 1 July 2026 and 1 January 2027 dates no longer apply and no new timetable had been announced as of September 2026. The Ministry of Taxation has begun work on a Spilpakke 2 aimed at newer products such as event-betting platforms. The 28% GGR rate is already confirmed for 2027 and fees will be indexed again in January.
Launching in Denmark with GameBridge
Turnkey (your licence, our platform). Danish licences are granted to the operator's own EU/EEA company, so the operator holds the Spillemyndigheden licence and runs on GameBridge technology; GameBridge does not hold a Danish licence and does not guarantee approval.
A Danish brand on GameBridge runs with Danish front-end content supplied by the operator, a DKK wallet, geo-controls admitting Danish residents only, and MitID-based identity verification with a ROFUS lookup at every login. Deposit limits sit inside the registration flow, the bonus engine is capped at DKK 1,000 with 60-day terms, and marketing templates carry the ROFUS and StopSpillet references. The catalog is curated to studios holding Danish B2B supplier licences, and GameBridge Studios and Originals titles ship with the certification package an accredited testing company needs. MobilePay and card rails connect through the operator's own acquiring on request.
- DKK wallet and Danish-market geo lists
- MitID onboarding and ROFUS check at login
- Mandatory deposit limits with cooling-off before increases
- Bonus engine locked to Danish value and duration caps
- SAFE-compatible game and transaction reporting exports
- Catalog filter for Danish B2B-licensed studios
- Certification package for GameBridge Studios and Originals releases
Online slots and live casino lead Danish lobbies; GameBridge aggregates the studios that already hold Danish B2B licences and builds exclusive GameBridge Studios titles to the operator's brief, while the sportsbook module covers football and handball for betting-led brands.
Frequently asked questions
Is online gambling legal in Denmark?
How much does a Danish gambling licence cost?
What is the gambling tax rate in Denmark?
Can a foreign company get a Danish gambling licence?
Which payment methods do Danish players use?
How does GameBridge help operators launch in Denmark?
Sources and review
Reviewed against the sources below on 11 September 2026. Regulation changes; confirm the current position with local counsel before launch.
- Gebyr på væddemål og onlinekasino — Spillemyndigheden, accessed 2026-09-11
- The Gambling Market in Numbers 2025 — Spillemyndigheden, accessed 2026-09-11
- Spilleafgiftsloven — afgiftssatser 2026 og 2027 — Skatteministeriet, accessed 2026-09-11
- Spilpakke 1: Et mere ansvarligt spilmarked (political agreement, 24 October 2025) — Skatteministeriet, accessed 2026-09-11
- Bekendtgørelse af lov om spil (consolidated Gambling Act) — Retsinformation, accessed 2026-09-11
- L 127 (2025-26) — Forslag til lov om ændring af lov om spil (lapsed) — Folketingstidende, accessed 2026-09-11
- New draft bill proposing stricter rules on marketing of gambling activities — Plesner, accessed 2026-09-11
Regulatory summaries are provided for orientation only and are not legal advice. Licensing requirements change; we validate them with you during scoping.