The Danish regulator Spillemyndigheden reported an increase of 18.3% in February gambling expenditure compared to the previous year.
The increase in gambling, land-based casinos, and online casinos was observed. In total, this amounted to DKK587m (PS67.16m/EUR78.69/$83.64) in February 2024.
The largest percentage increase was in sports betting, followed by online casinos. Sports betting GGR increased 32.5% and online casino GGR rose 18.5%. Spillemyndigheden says this is due to the lower RTP of February 2024 as compared with 2023.
What is in the report?
Statistics used in the report for February 2024 are taken from the data submitted by the operators to the Danish Tax Agency. The report includes statistics on the Danish gambling industry, as well as responsible gambling. The figures are taken from both the Register of Self-Excluded Gamblers, or ROFUS, and StopSpillet – Denmark’s Problem Gambling Helpline.
GGR shows that sports betting accounts for 30,2%, online casinos for 47.3% and gaming machines for 16.9%. Land-based casino’s accounted for the remainder, totaling 5.4% of GGR.
The GGR increased by 18.3% in February 2023 compared with the previous year. However, there were significant variations across all verticals.
The biggest increase was in sports betting. Total betting increased by 32.5%, from DKK134.0m in February of 2023 to DKK178.0m February 2024. In Denmark, mobile is the most popular channel. 65.6% all wagers were placed on smartphones in February. Desktop represented 24.1% of all bets, and retail was 10.19%.
The online casino also experienced a substantial increase. From DKK234.0m to DKK278.0m, the amount of DKK278.0m was up by 18.53% in February of 2024. Interesting, 38.8% more bets are placed on desktops for sports betting than online casinos. Mobile was responsible for 61.1%.
The GGR of gaming machines was stable from year to year, increasing by 1.85%. The change was from DKK98.0m up to DKK100.0m. The GGR of land-based casinos has also seen a significant increase, from DKK30.0m to DKK32.0m by 2024. Totaling 7.0%, this represents a significant increase.
Gambling problem in the Country
Spillemyndigheden’s report uses ROFUS, and StopSpillet as its two main responsible gambling initiatives.
Men constituted 77.2%, or the majority, of those who self-excluded themselves from gambling in February. In contrast, women accounted for 22.76 percent. Between 2023 and 2020, the total number of people who self-excluded remained stable. However, there was an annual increase of 1500 individuals. The total was 46,152 people in 2023, and 48,685 persons in 2024.
The vast majority of males who called StopSpillet were aged 18 to 35. According to iGB’s recent report, StopSpillet was launched on January 1, 2019 and has already received 2,933 calls. The figures indicate that a high percentage of these callers are gambling addicts.
Just over 1,650 of the inquiries were made by players themselves, or 56%. A further 1,150 enquiries, which is 40% of all inquiries, were made by relatives of players. Around half of the calls were made by parents. While 4% of the calls were from professionals.
StopSpillet reported that at this point, 67% of the calls concerned online gambling and casino. The physical bets, slot machines and poker were accounted for by 20% of the players.
StopSpillet has released its latest report, which is based on data collected by Spillemyndigheden in May 2023. This revealed that 88% (or 25%) of those who called the Helpline placed their first wager when they were under 25.
50 % of those who called had made their first wager before they turned 17. In November, a study revealed that only 4% of the calls made to StopSpillet came from people under 18 years old.
