Danes spent less on gambling in September 2025 than they did a year earlier, according to the latest data from the Danish Gambling Authority. The regulator’s monthly update shows an overall decline in gambling spend of 0.9 percent compared with September 2024.
“The betting sector in particular experienced a larger decline,” the Authority said in its press release. While the total market slipped marginally, betting volumes tumbled 34.9 percent year-on-year. Spending on slot machines also fell 3.2 percent, whereas land-based and online casinos both grew, rising 7.1 percent and 15.2 percent respectively.
The regulator’s accompanying statistical tables reveal the scale of the change across Denmark’s liberalised gambling market. Between January 2024 and September 2025, total gross gaming revenue (GGR) reached DKK 12.96 billion (about €1.74 billion), up from DKK 12.12 billion (around €1.63 billion) in the previous comparable period. The composition of that revenue, however, shifted markedly toward online play.
Online casinos now account for just over half of all legal gambling in Denmark (50.64 percent of the total) followed by betting at 28.7 percent, gaming machines at 15.56 percent and land-based casinos at 4.94 percent.
Mobile betting is still consumers’ favourite, responsible for 70.5 percent of betting GGR, compared with 13.88 percent for land-based channels. The Authority’s data also show that, in the betting market, computers accounted for roughly 24 percent of online betting, with land-based outlets making up just 8.5 percent.
Online casinos remained the strongest performer in the Danish market. Their cumulative GGR for the current reporting period rose to DKK 6.56 billion (€878 million) compared with DKK 5.38 billion (€720 million) a year earlier.
In April 2025, online casino revenue jumped 21.4 percent year-on-year, followed by an exceptional 40.1 percent increase in May. The sector’s composition remains dominated by slot-style “gaming machines,” which make up 79.71 percent of online casino GGR, while blackjack and roulette contribute 6.48 and 6.1 percent respectively.
Land-based casinos have also stabilised following pandemic-era volatility.
Meanwhile, the smallest vertical, land-based bingo, contributed DKK 21 million (€ 2.81 million) from January to September 2025.
Although the September headline points to contraction, the broader picture remains one of stability since liberalisation. Over the decade since liberalisation, total gambling spend has increased modestly, with growth concentrated in betting and online casino, while gambling’s share of the broader economy has stayed relatively stable. Lotteries, which remain under monopoly control, still form a distinct part of the national gambling economy.
This structure reflects what Danish Gambling Authority director Anders Dorph has called “a very open-minded approach” to regulation. Talking to SiGMA News, he explained that “Prohibitions don’t really work. Simply imposing restrictions isn’t effective, because we can’t shut down the Internet.”
Instead, the regulator has sought to ensure that licensed operators can compete effectively with unlicensed sites. “The most important thing is to ensure that the legalised market has good conditions and is able to compete with the illegal market,” Dorph explained.
That balance between consumer protection and market competitiveness is widely regarded as central to Denmark’s success in maintaining high participation within the licensed system. In a comparative report by Danish law firm Nordic Legal and Swedish trade union BOS, analysts noted that Denmark “has long been seen as Europe’s model of pragmatic regulation,” though the market is “now under increasing pressure from unlicensed operators.”
Dorph has repeatedly warned that restrictive measures can backfire if they make licensed play less attractive. “If you place too many restrictions on the legal market, it becomes difficult for it to compete. The illegal market can simply say, ‘Hey, we don’t have those restrictions, we can offer better odds, ’” he told SiGMA News.
The regulator’s surveys underline that risk: “Thirty-eight percent of players said it was because they could find new, more interesting games on the legal market, and the second most common reason was the availability of better odds,” Dorph said.
For now, the September data suggest a pause rather than a reversal in Denmark’s gambling trajectory. Betting’s 34.9 percent slump and the 0.9 percent overall contraction show the market’s sensitivity to consumer trends, but the gains in online and land-based casinos offset much of the decline.
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