Denmark blocked 334 illegal gambling sites in 2025 and tightened app store cooperation

Denmark’s gambling regulator, Spillemyndigheden, stepped up enforcement against unlicensed online gambling in 2025 and got court orders to block 334 illegal websites aimed at Danish consumers. For PSPs and operators, the useful bit is not the headline number itself, but the combination of court-backed blocking, app-store takedowns, and broader authority over affiliate traffic.

1. Spillemyndigheden said it identified illegal gambling sites in 2025 using proactive searches, data analytics, and public tips, with help from the Danish Tax Authority’s anti-fraud unit. That work led to 695 potentially illicit platforms being investigated further, and 334 websites later being confirmed by courts as operating without Danish licences and blocked.
2. An additional 36 websites removed or changed their gambling offerings after the regulator intervened. The regulator said the rise in blocking activity mainly reflected stronger surveillance, not a bigger illegal market, and said a detailed channelisation report will be published later in 2026.
3. The report also said DNS-level blocking had measurable impact in some cases. After 178 sites were blocked in June 2025, third-party web traffic analysis showed an approximate 34% reduction in visits over the following six months versus the prior period, although Spillemyndigheden noted that some blocked domains showed no measurable decline.
4. Spillemyndigheden also updated its cooperation with Teleindustrien, the trade association for Danish internet service providers, so mirror or “clone” sites can be blocked dynamically without a fresh court order for each instance. For any operator or payment provider touching Denmark, that is the sort of operational detail that matters: once a domain is hit, copying it is no longer a clean workaround.
5. The enforcement push sits alongside “Spilpakke 1”, passed by a broad parliamentary majority in October 2025. The package expanded Spillemyndigheden’s powers to block referral and affiliate websites that send Danish users to unlicensed operators, and it also introduced a whistle-to-whistle ban on gambling ads during live sports broadcasts, starting 10 minutes before the event and ending 10 minutes after the games conclude.

The report also flagged a shift in illegal gambling marketing toward mobile apps on iOS and Android, plus social and streaming platforms. Spillemyndigheden has formalised complaint channels with Apple and Google to speed removal of illicit apps from Danish app stores, while licensed operators can now report brand misuse directly on Meta’s platforms.