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New Danish legislation would for the first time give the Danish Gambling Authority (DGA) the power to issue orders and reprimands, but the regulator would still have no direct authority to fine.
A bill expected to take effect on July 1 would somewhat expand the agency’s authority and loosen disclosure rules on violations.
But the regulator will still need to refer punishments to the police for prosecution, although it can recommend the size of potential fines, said Jan Madsen, who heads the division in charge of market analysis and fighting match fixing and illegal gambling at the DGA.
Unlike regulators in countries such as Sweden, the Netherlands and the UK, the DGA has no authority to fine, and will not gain it under the new legislation.
Until July 1, Danish fines and convictions are not considered public information, except in violations involving money laundering.
The bill would also give the authority, which is part of the tax ministry, more power to require licensees to provide information to help fight match-fixing.
One attorney, Mikkel Taanum of Bird & Bird, called the bill “the biggest legislative changes since the liberalisation of gambling laws in 2012”.
Fines, convictions and partial convictions will be published within seven days on the agency’s spillemyndigheden.dk website, but not orders and reprimands, according to Madsen. He was responding to emailed questions.
Any reprimands must contain legal justification and information on how to appeal.
Changes in disclosure policy have been in the works since at least August 2020, when the Danish tax ministry confirmed that it was working on a proposal to make gambling fines and penalties public for the first time.
In January 2020, Vixio GamblingCompliance's freedom of information requests revealed that over eight years through to 2019, only €293,000 in fines were issued in Denmark for gambling law violations, a tiny fraction of those issued in countries such as the Netherlands or the UK.
Those fines and punishments were not disclosed publicly, even though they resulted from police or court action.
In contrast, last month the Netherlands Gambling Authority fined a Malta-based company €19.7m, and last year the UK’s Gambling Commission fined a licensee £19.2m (€22.4m), both for serious violations.
Sweden just assessed state-owned Svenska Spel SEK100m (€8.7m).
The Danish bill would also impose supplier licensing from January 2025.
Suppliers will be subject to the same set of sanctions and disclosure rules as the B2C licensees, Madsen said.
