Danish Gambling Authority orders 25 sites blocked

Danish Gambling Authority orders 25 gaming sites blocked

Spillemyndigheden, the Danish gambling regulator, has dropped the hammer on a number of websites it says was operating illegally in the country. It has contacted Denmark’s Internet Service Providers (ISP), requesting that they block access to all of the sites for not obtaining the requisite licenses to provide their services in the country.

Danish Gambling Authority orders 25 gaming sites blockedIn total, 25 sites were targeted through the action, which has been supported by the Copenhagen City Court. 10 of the sites are iGaming sites and the other 15 are skin gambling sites. The director of the Spillemyndigheden, Birgitten Sand, explains, “We use our authority to block websites on an ongoing basis. We do this to protect the gaming providers who are authorized to offer games in Denmark, but also to protect the players.”

Sand continued, “Here we are focusing in particular on sites that offer skin betting, as they often target children and adolescents under the age of 18.”

The list of sites to be blocked include, among others, 1xBet, Equinox Dynamic’s Nordic Casino, Orientxpresscasino, La Fiesta Casino sites, Game Tech Group’s Ramses Casino and two other domains for the company’s Cashpot Casino site. In addition, Alpha Interactive Solutions’ Casino Napoli and Mr. James Casino, and Usoftgaming’s Ph.Casino site are also to be blacklisted.

The crackdown on skin betting sites—sites that allow video game virtual items to be used as collateral in placing a bet—comes after Spillemyndigheden has “refined” its process for identifying those sites. The majority of those targeted were offering skin betting on the popular Counter-Strike: Global Offensive first-person shooter video game.

This past January, the regulator went after 18 domains and requested that ISPs block access. In 2017, it took similar action, ordering 31 sites to have their access withdrawn.

Sand further offered, “We will continue to work purposefully and persistently to find and block illegal skin betting websites, although the work needed to document and block these sites tends to be complicated.”

Sand expressed the authority’s commitment to crack down on unauthorized gaming sites, saying, “We will continue our efforts to tackle illegal gambling and look carefully for the skin betting sites, especially, since they often involve children playing computer games that can suddenly evolve into gambling. Therefore, we are also looking at other methods to get rid of these illegal pages, while simultaneously continuing to monitor unlicensed betting and gaming sites targeting Denmark.”