Few years after the regulation of public gaming, Denmark is intended as a model to follow for other countries.
Once upon a time, Denmark took the cue from Italy and other European jurisdictions to start its process of regulating gambling market, creating a public sector that is worth more than €9 billion today.
In 2012 the Danish state introduced its model, regulating the online segment, considering that they can't postpone it anymore, given the global spread of the phenomenon and placing it within the traditional gaming offer, represented by land-based casinos, lotteries and entertainment devices.
Creating a public, safe and regulated market, putting the player and its protection at the center of the whole regulatory system. To be achieved at any cost and, therefore, with every tool. Until creating new and also innovative ones. Like the register (called Rofus) of self-exclusion of the players, which after the initial doubts of other European countries, became a tool to be emulated. To the point that today that same tool was also adopted by our country, thus reversing the initial path of inspiration and regulation. But it is not the only innovative means conceived by the Danish regulator or even the last one. As Kira Brianka, legal officer responsible gambling of the local authority ruling the sector, Spillemyndigheden, better known outside the national borders as DGA, Danish Gambling Authority, due to the fact that this is a unpronounceable name for non-Danes, explains to Gioco News.
How does the Rufus register work, also in the light of the latest changes to the system?
“To register in Rofus you log in on our website, through NemID. NemID is a personal secure login, we use online in Denmark (similar to our Spita system). When you are logged in, you are able to choose from a temporary exclusion or a permanently exclusion. The temporary exclusion periods are for 24 hours, 1, 3 or 6 months.
From January 2017, the Rofus register also included land based casinos. That means that a player who is registered in Rofus after that date will not be able to enter a land based casino in Denmark while registered.
In 2017 players in Rofus were given the choice to say no to gambling advertisement. It is a voluntary system, where the licence holders have the option to use Rofus when they send out marketing emails to their customers. A player registered in Rofus would then not receive marketing emails from that licence holder while registered”.
How many players have chosen to exclude themselves from gaming activities? And how many total players are estimated in Denmark?
“Per 1st of October there were 16.369 players in Rofus. Of these 11.126 are permanently excluded. The number of people in the register are growing steadily. A report from 2016 concluded that 82% of the adult Danes, have at some point in their life tried gambling, and 63% have gambled within the last year. The report also concluded that approximately 10.000 Danes are addicted to gambling”.
After the first years of activity of the Registry, what stock can you take?
“Rofus launched in 2012, and have seen an exponentially growth since then. By the end of 2012, a year after it launched it had 1.456 registered players, today 6 years later it has more than 16.000 registered players. This follows the line of the raised awareness of Rofus in the general public.
In essence Rofus hasn’t changed since it launched, albeit there has been some additions to the system, as mentioned above.
The feedback we get from the treatment facilities are positive, and they encourage the players with gambling problems to register in Rofus. The general opinion among the registered players are also positive”.
At our Eig round table, you talked about a new app about responsible gaming that you would have launched shortly: can you explain how it works and what feedback is it having from the public?
“The app is called MitSpil (MyGame). You can through the app register how much you have been playing for, and whatever you might have won. It calculates your total loses and earnings, and gives the user an overview on their gambling for the past month. It helps players to get an overview and can get some players to realize how much they spend on gambling.
It hasn’t been downloaded much, but has helped raise awareness about responsible gambling. The launcing of the app was followed by campaigns on TV and other distributions channels from the DGA”.
Are there any news coming to the Danish market? Are there any new rules or games that will be introduced soon?
“In June 2017, the Danish Parliament voted to liberalise online bingo and betting on horse racing, dog racing and pigeon racing, which took effect 1st of January 2018. This has opened up the market for more gambling providers, but in Denmark we don’t yet see much betting on dog and pigeon racing.
In June this year, most parties of the parliament agreed to a responsible gambling package. The package is an agreement to impose further rules regarding responsible gambling in the near future. It’s important to note, that these rules haven’t been made yet and changes can happen, but the package helps to underline that there are focus on responsible gambling from a political perspective.
The package involves making a gambling addiction hotline, which will guide players who are in the risk zone of getting a gambling addiction. It also involves limitations on the way gambling providers can use bonus offers in their marketing. The package urges the industry to make a code of conduct.
For more statistics and information you are welcome to see our annual report from 2017”.