DENMARK Law and Practice Contributed by: Nina Henningsen, Mazanti-Andersen
8.2 AML Requirements Danish licence holders may only receive payments into a gambling account from a payment services pro- vider that provides these services legally in Denmark, pursuant to the Danish Payment Services Act. According to this act, payment services may only be provided in Denmark by certain types of providers that have been granted authorisation in Denmark, in the EU or in a country with which the EU has entered into an agreement for the financial area. If the service provider does not hold Danish authorisa- tion, it cannot begin its operation in Denmark before it has obtained cross-border authorisation; as provided in the Danish Financial Business Act. Authorisation is granted when the FSA has received notification from the supervisory authorities in the ser- vice provider’s home country. Furthermore, gambling operators are not allowed to provide credit facilities to players. EU AML Directives The Fourth AML Directive was implemented as of 26 June 2017 via the New Danish AML Act. This had the effect of making the AML regulation cover both online and offline casinos and betting; thus, since 26 June 2017, all gambling operators have been required to identify and assess the risk of money laundering and financing of terrorism within their business on the basis of their business model. With regard to that risk assessment, they are required to have suf - ficient written policies, procedures and controls to effectively limit the risk of money laundering and the financing of terrorism. Additionally, gambling opera- tors are required to carry out customer due diligence with their customers. In certain situations, customer due diligence may require enhancement, while in other situations, simplified due diligence is sufficient. The AML Act is very comprehensive and the above is not exhaustive. The DGA has published a guideline that should be seen as a supplement to the general guide- line from the FSA.
Gambling operators are also obliged to inform the Danish Anti-Money Laundering Secretariat of any suspicious transactions. The Fifth AML Directive was implemented as of 2 May 2019 via the Danish AML Act. The main part of the act came into effect as of 10 January 2020, after which, suppliers of exchange services for virtual currencies and fiat currencies and suppliers of virtual wallets were covered by the Danish AML Act. Virtual Currencies There is no specific regulation concerning gambling with virtual currencies and, thus, the Gambling Act will apply if such activity can be characterised as “gam- bling” pursuant to Section 5 (1)(i) of the Gambling Act, the central condition being whether there is a chance of winning a prize. Only regulated currencies are covered by the Danish Payment Services Act, which means that unregulated currencies such as bitcoin will not be accepted as a means of payment. The DGA monitors the gambling market and it also monitors licence holders’ compliance with marketing provisions. Note that where infringement of such mar- keting provisions will result in fines or imprisonment, the case is handed over to the Danish police (see 11. Enforcement ). Games that fall under the Danish regulation on mar- keting and consumer protection are also the respon- sibility of the Danish Consumer Ombudsman. A Gambling Advertisement Board was established in 2022. The board has the authority to handle com- plaints made regarding the advertising of gambling in Denmark. All verdicts are published on their website . 9.2 Definition of Advertising Neither the Gambling Act nor the Danish Marketing Practices Act defines advertising. It may be defined as a business person’s or a company’s commercial 9. Advertising 9.1 Regulatory/Supervisory Agency
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