Denmark revives gambling law with stricter sports ad curbs

Denmark has reintroduced an amendment to its Gambling Act that would impose tighter restrictions on gambling advertising, according to EGR. The centrepiece of the proposal is a so called whistle to whistle ban on betting adverts around live sport.

What a whistle to whistle ban means

A whistle to whistle ban stops operators from advertising in the period immediately before a sporting fixture starts until after it finishes. The term comes from the idea of covering the whole window from kick off to the final whistle, closing the advertising slots that typically carry the heaviest gambling promotion during televised matches.

Such bans are intended to reduce children's and vulnerable adults' exposure to gambling marketing during popular broadcasts, without banning advertising outright at other times of day.

Why the amendment is back on the table

The bill has been reintroduced after an earlier attempt, according to EGR, as Danish lawmakers look again at how far gambling marketing should be curbed. Denmark operates a licensed, competitive betting and online casino market, and any change to advertising rules affects how operators can compete for customers within that regulated system.

A bill advocate cited by EGR said the tighter restrictions could have a financial cost for the state. The advocate warned the changes could lead to a decline in tax take of around DKK25m, alongside a risk that bettors migrate to unlicensed, offshore operators that fall outside Danish tax and consumer protection rules.

The trade off regulators face

The warning points to a familiar tension in gambling regulation. Tighter advertising rules are generally designed to reduce gambling harm and limit exposure for children, but they can also reduce the visibility of licensed operators relative to unregulated sites that ignore local restrictions altogether. If bettors move to the black market, tax revenue falls and consumer protections such as deposit limits or self exclusion tools no longer apply to those players.

Denmark is not alone in weighing this balance. Several European markets have tightened sports related gambling advertising in recent years, part of a broader push detailed in Casino Courant's roundup of major regulatory moves across the gambling industry.

What happens next

EGR's report does not set out a timetable for when the amendment might be debated or voted on, and further detail on the exact scope of the advertising restrictions has not yet been published. Casino Courant will report further once the bill's progress through the Danish parliament becomes clearer.

Operators active in Denmark, including suppliers that have recently expanded their presence in the market such as the launch of Merkur Bets via EveryMatrix, will be watching closely how any new advertising limits are applied in practice.