Open licensing, split by function
Alderney
A Channel Island jurisdiction whose licence separates the customer relationship from the platform operation.
Licensed online casino
Denmark
An early licensing regime whose certification programme and exclusion register were widely copied.
| Product | Position | What that means |
|---|---|---|
| Online casino | Licensed | Commercial operators can be licensed to offer this product to local customers. |
| Sports betting | Licensed | Commercial operators can be licensed to offer this product to local customers. |
| Online poker | Licensed | Commercial operators can be licensed to offer this product to local customers. |
| Lottery | State monopoly | Reserved to a state or state-controlled operator; no commercial licence is available. |
How the market works
Denmark licensed online casino and betting from the start of 2012, early enough that its framework became a model for later regimes rather than a follower of them. Licences are issued for betting and for online casino, separately or together, and the application process is run in English as well as Danish.
The Danish certification programme is the most prescriptive part of the regime. It specifies what must be tested before launch and at intervals afterwards: the random number generator, the games, the gambling platform, the reporting interface to the authority, information security management, and the change management process that governs how updates reach production. An operator that has been through Danish certification generally finds other European technical requirements familiar.
ROFUS handles exclusion and licensees must check it before accepting a stake. Denmark also requires the display of a licence label on the site, which gives customers a verifiable way to tell a licensed operator from an unlicensed one.
Who regulates it
Spillemyndigheden (DGA), based in Copenhagen and operating under Danish Act on Gambling. The Danish Gambling Authority, which ran one of the earliest and most imitated European licensing regimes.
Licence types issued
- Online casino
- Betting
- Land-based casino
- Gaming machines
- Charitable lottery
Questions about Denmark
Other markets in Europe
Online licence tied to a land-based licence
Belgium
Online licences exist only as supplements to land-based licences, and advertising is prohibited.
Tied to land-based online casino
Open licensing per game type
Czechia
A licensed market with a mandatory central exclusion register that covers more than self-exclusion.
Licensed online casino
Monopoly, with licensing legislated for 2027
Finland
One of Europe's last gambling monopolies, legislated to open to licensed competition from 2027.
State monopoly online casino
Open licensing, three verticals only
France
The largest European economy with no legal online casino: only betting, horse racing and poker can be licensed.
Prohibited online casino
Open licensing, with online table games excluded
Germany
Europe's largest economy licenses online slots and poker but not online table games, and taxes stakes rather than revenue.
Partly restricted online casino
Background reading
Legal and compliance
What a gaming licence actually covers
A licence is not a badge of quality and it is not valid everywhere. What it authorises, who it binds, and why one company often holds a dozen.
Legal and compliance
How gambling is taxed, and why the base matters
A tax on stakes and a tax on gross gaming revenue can carry the same headline number and produce completely different businesses.
Legal and compliance
How a company enters a new market
The sequence from legal assessment to launch, and the parts that routinely take longer than anyone plans for.
Legal and compliance
What grey and black markets actually mean
The industry uses three words for the legal status of a market and rarely defines them. Here is what each one means in practice.