Changes to Danish Online Gambling

A new Online Gambling Association is to be formed in Denmark following the legislative changes that the Danish government introduced to its online gambling market.

The new Danish Gambling Association will be backed by the Remote Gambling Association (RGA) that deals with supervising, supporting and fighting for a regulated online gambling market in Europe.

All this is happening ahead of January 1, 2012 when it will become legal to provide the Danes with online casino services in a legal and regulated manner. The new legislation was approved by the Danish parliament back in June 2010 but was waiting for European Union approval.

In September the European Commission (EC) granted approval to the Danish legislation and paved the way for said legislation to take effect at the beginning of 2012.

Under the new regulation the Danish online gambling market will open to international online gaming operators. All operators wishing to legally provide online gambling services to Danish residents will be required to obtain a license and pay a 20 percent tax on of gross revenues.

The tax rate for online casinos is the issue that delayed the approval from the EC as Danish land casinos complained that the new legislation favors online casinos over land casinos as land casinos are required to pay a tax rate of 40 to 75 percent on their gross revenues.

However the EC decided that although the situation is not fair on land casinos, the legislation is to be approved as the benefits of approving it outweighs the disadvantages of maintaining the Danish gambling market as it is.

For many years the Danes made a distinction between games of skill and games of chance. All games based on chance were under the control of Danske Spil, which had 80 percent of its shares held by the Danish government itself.

The EC pushed the Danish government on making a change to their gambling legislation and once they finally did so the EC took under advisement the feelings of land casino operators but decided that it was more in the interests of Europeans in general and the Danes in particular for this legislation to be approved and implemented.