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Denmark – Danish regulator highlights problems of facebook promotions and skin betting

By - 3 January 2019

Danish gambling regulator Spillemyndigheden said that it blocked 18 unauthorised gambling websites in 2018.

Whilst this number remains ‘continuously low,’ it warned that websites with illegal marketing and promotion of gambling still ‘pose a challenge’ as do promotions on facebook and skin gambling.

Spillemyndigheden revealed that its web searches identified 742 possibly problematic websites due to its searches being ‘broader than usual to ensure that previously legal sites have not changed their contents.’

The 18 domains that were blocked represented the highest number for six years when 20 orders were issued.

The Danish Gambling Authority said: “The number of websites with an illegal supply of gambling products that are found through web searches is continuously low. This matches the Danish Gambling Authority’s impression of the illegal market: that still fewer websites with gambling products directed at Denmark appear.

“However, websites with illegal marketing and promotion of gambling still pose a challenge. The majority of websites with illegal marketing and promotion of gambling websites are so-called recommendation sites on which ”the 10 best online casinos” are referred to.”

The Danish Gambling Authority said it was aware of an increasing problem with illegal supply of gambling on Facebook.

It said: “The problem is primarily a matter of Facebook groups in which illegal gambling is provided (often lotteries). Consequently, the Danish Gambling Authority has initiated a cooperation with Facebook on the problem. Thus, the Danish Gambling Authority has the opportunity to report illegal content on Facebook directly to the working group at Facebook, which work on illegal gambling. In this way, we have closed four Facebook groups in 2018 that provided illegal gambling.

With regards to skin betting it added: “Almost all the illegal skin betting websites use the platform Steam as login. This poses a challenge since Steam is also used for legal games (without stakes), which contributes to involving especially young persons in skin betting. In February 2018, the court decided that six skin betting sites must be blocked. The court took the view that the games required a licence and that the websites’ supply of gambling was targeting Denmark as they were using Steam as login. Subsequently, the Danish Gambling Authority initiated an extensive web search of illegal skin betting sites. It quickly became evident that searching for skin betting sites requires more than searching for regular gambling sites. Accordingly, the Danish Gambling Authority programmed its own web crawler, which gave a satisfactory result. The Danish Gambling Authority has thoroughly worked through some of the websites that were found, and it is expected that the next blocking session will include 20-25 skin betting sites, which the Danish Gambling Authority wishes to have blocked.”

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