Danish TV station challenges national gambling monopoly - Online Bingo News

In an interesting development that may have implications for online bingo games operators looking to access the currently monopolized Danish online bingo market, a legal loophole has been found by Denmark’s TV2 station which lets it give cash payouts to people who win at the station’s online skill games.

In the existing legal framework, a game of skill is considered different to a game of chance and so TV2’s ‘skill’ games allow it to take a slice of Denmark’s DK11 billion gambling market from national monopoly Danske Spil.

TV2’s director Lars Bernt explained the station’s position to the Copenhagen Post saying: "We've looked into the legalities of this together with gaming officials. They differentiate between games of chance, which are covered by the monopoly, and games of skill, which are not."

TV2 now have a website offering twelve skill games such as backgammon, golf and pool.

The implications for bingo online operators is that the move by TV2 further erodes the archaic stranglehold Danske Spil currently enjoys in the Scandinavian country’s gambling market.  Denmark’s protectionist policies towards its gambling industry have provoked strong criticism from the European Commission which seeks to enforce the European Union’s commitment to open and free trade between member states.

The amount of people who play bingo online in Denmark is increasing with the female demographic particularly strong in the niche.

Written by John Witherspoon – Need the best online bingo games? BingoStreet.com collected the best online bingo promotions and free bingo games online.