Denmark to tighten gambling ad rules with wider duty of care from Jan 2027

Denmark will introduce stricter gambling advertising rules and expanded duty-of-care obligations after the first reading of a new Bill on 22 October 2026, with the legislation due to come into force on 1 January 2027. The Bill, proposed by Minister for Taxation and Growth Jakob Engel-Schmidt, limits how operators and their marketing agents may present gambling, restricts placement of outdoor ads and assigns new monitoring responsibilities to operators.

New gambling ad rules and marketing limits

The Bill removes promotional latitude by prohibiting portrayals of gambling as an entertainment activity or any suggestion that gambling can change a person’s life. Marketing materials must not feature anyone under 25 years of age and must not target persons under 18. The restrictions apply to betting companies and their marketing agents alike.

Outdoor placements face fresh constraints. Advertising will be banned on public transport and must be positioned at least 200 metres away from educational establishments including schools and universities. The Bill also proposes a ban on gambling marketing during live sports coverage: no gambling adverts during broadcasts, and a blackout window of 10 minutes before and 10 minutes after live sports broadcasts. These broadcast restrictions will affect operators that sponsor or advertise around live events and will require coordination with rights-holders and broadcasters.

Duty of care obligations on operators and monitoring customer behaviour

Operators will carry an explicit duty to monitor customer behaviour to prevent gambling problems from developing. The Bill places responsibility on gambling operators to observe customers and act when patterns suggest risk. The proposed measures do not only concern online platforms; land-based betting venues are brought into scope for compliance and enforcement.

Land betting facilities face a graduated fine and sanction regime under the Bill. The first violation would incur a fine of approximately €8,000, a second violation around €10,700, and a third breach may lead to loss of licence. The Bill therefore links monetary penalties with the prospect of licence revocation for repeat non-compliance.

Enforcement powers for the Danish Gambling Authority (Spillemyndigheden)

The Bill would give the Danish Gambling Authority (Spillemyndigheden) expanded powers to act against unlicensed activity that targets the Danish market. Among the tools proposed is the authority to block unlicensed intermediary websites that facilitate access to offshore services aimed at Danish consumers. These powers are intended to complement the domestic marketing restrictions by reducing cross-border circumvention.

The Bill names the regulator and clarifies its supervisory role over both licensed operators and intermediaries that target Denmark. Spillemyndigheden will be responsible for policing the new outdoor, broadcast and age-related rules, as well as administering the fine schedule for land betting facilities.

Practical implications for operators, media buyers and broadcasters

Operators must revise creative and media-buying strategies to comply with the age, portrayal and placement rules. Creative teams will need to ensure that no promotional asset presents gambling as entertainment or life-changing, and that no persons under 25 appear in campaigns.

Media-buyers must rework scheduling and inventory choices to respect the broadcast blackout — the 10-minute pre- and post-event windows — and avoid public-transport inventory. Broadcasters and rights-holders will need clear protocols to apply the blackout around live sport and to flag non-compliant adverts for removal.

Compliance actions operators should consider now:

• audit current creative assets, sponsorships and influencer arrangements for portrayal and age content;

• map outdoor and transit inventory against educational establishment locations to ensure the 200-metre buffer;

• implement monitoring frameworks that detect behavioural risk signals and record interventions; and

• review contractual terms with marketing agencies to allocate responsibility for pre-publication checks.

Those providing services to operators, including advertising agencies and platform suppliers, will face increased demand for age-verification, content-auditing and proximity-mapping tools. The commercial consequence is a need for operational changes across ad approval, trafficking and post-campaign review.

Legislative timing and next steps

The first parliamentary reading took place on 22 October 2026. The Bill is scheduled to enter into force on 1 January 2027. Operators should treat the January date as the compliance milestone for updating creative workflow, media buying and customer-monitoring systems. Industry participants negotiating rights and sponsorships for 2027 should factor the broadcast blackout and the advertising placement constraints into contracts signed before the effective date.

Wider regulatory context and enforcement focus

By combining marketing restrictions with a statutory duty to monitor customers and by widening Spillemyndigheden’s blocking powers, the Bill aims to reduce exposure to gambling for under-18s and to curb aggressive promotion near schools and on public transport. The fines for land betting facilities and the potential for licence withdrawal for repeat breaches make the enforcement framework disproportionately consequential for physical venues.

Operators that continue to advertise during the blackout around live events, fail to remove under-25 talent from assets, or place ads within the 200-metre buffer risk the stepped penalties set out in the Bill and direct regulatory action from Spillemyndigheden.

For readers tracking regulatory developments, this amendment sits with other recent European measures that constrain gambling marketing. Compliance teams should review both marketing and sponsorship commitments and consider the operational changes required by the expanded duty of care. Vendors offering compliance tooling can expect demand to rise for audience age screening, geo-fencing of outdoor inventory and behavioural monitoring solutions. Regulators will be alert to how the new powers to block intermediary sites are exercised, and operators can expect requests for audit evidence from the Danish authority.

Eleanor Whitfield, Regulatory Affairs Correspondent