Online casino overtakes lottery in Denmark

• Online casino revenue hit DKK4.31 billion (38% of the market) in 2025, overtaking lottery for the first time since Denmark’s 2012 liberalisation.
• Total Danish gross gambling revenue slipped 1% to DKK11.5 billion, per Spillemyndigheden’s annual market review.
• Helpline StopSpillet logged 727 calls in 2025, its highest total since its 2019 launch, with online casino linked to 62% of cases.

Online casinos have overtaken lotteries as Denmark’s largest gambling segment in 2025, according to the annual market review published this week by the Danish Gambling Authority, Spillemyndigheden.

The shift marks the first time online casino spending has topped lottery revenue since the market partially liberalised in 2012.

Segment revenue shifts

Denmark’s total gross gambling revenue reached DKK11.5 billion ($1.75 billion) in 2025, down 1% (DKK116 million) from DKK11.6 billion in 2024.

The regulator restates all figures, including the 2012 baseline, in 2026 price and GDP terms for comparability. On that basis, 2025 revenue sits 4.9% below the 2012 level.

Online casino revenue climbed 12.1% year-on-year to DKK4.31 billion, a 38% market share and cumulative growth of 139% since 2012. Monopoly lottery revenue, spanning Lotto and scratch tickets, fell 6.2% to DKK3.49 billion, a 30% share.

Sports betting dropped 11.5% to DKK2.13 billion. Slot machines declined 6.8% to DKK1.18 billion, and land-based casinos slipped 5.6% to DKK378 million. Newly liberalised land-based bingo added DKK30 million in its first year of operation.

Spillemyndigheden deferred the channelisation report accompanying this year’s review, which covers 2025 data, so estimates of unlicensed market activity were excluded pending further verification.

That gap can be sizeable: regtech firm Gaming Compliance International recently put the global unregulated market at $5.9 trillion in wagering value.

Lottery revenue has fallen 27.7% since 2012, from DKK4.83 billion to its current level. Sports betting peaked in 2018 at DKK3.61 billion, before a consumer-protection agreement that year and a 2021 online gambling tax rise from 20% to 28% weighed on the vertical. It still sits 7.6% above 2012 levels, with average payout rates of 89.7%.

Land-based verticals shrank hardest. Slot machine revenue is down 60.5% since 2012, and land-based casino revenue has fallen roughly 35%.

The decline was sharpened by pandemic-era closures between 2020 and 2022. Operator performance varies sharply: most reported GGR under DKK25 million in 2025; several major companies each topped DKK100 million.

Mobile drives online growth

Online gambling accounted for 73% of total GGR in 2025, up from 70% in 2024 and just 33% in 2012.

Mobile devices drove the shift: their share of combined online betting and casino revenue rose from 11% in 2012 to 73% in 2025, reaching 69% within online casino specifically.

Slots led online casino play at 82% of segment GGR (DKK3.54 billion). Roulette and blackjack each contributed roughly 6% of the segment, DKK246 million and DKK267 million respectively.

The regulator issued 1,970 licences across all categories by the end of 2025, including 41 for online casino and 27 for betting.

That total spans betting, online casino, slot machines, land-based casinos, monopoly and charitable lotteries, and bingo. Around 277 permits covered 23,172 physical slot machines, and four monopoly holders retained exclusive lottery rights.

Problem gambling concerns rise

Denmark’s self-exclusion register, ROFUS, grew to 68,026 entries in 2025, up roughly 12,000 from the previous year. Men made up 79% of registrants, and 69% were under 40.

StopSpillet, the national gambling helpline, received 727 calls in 2025, its highest total since its 2019 launch year, when it logged 728. Player callers made up 57% of contacts, and 45% of those reported starting gambling before turning 18.

Online casino was linked to 62% of problem-gambling cases raised through the helpline, with online betting tied to a further 22%. The average severity score among callers was 5.61 out of 9.

The gap between online casino growth and declines across lottery, betting and land-based verticals signals where operators will likely concentrate investment through the rest of 2026.

Gambling Package 1, agreed by Denmark’s parliament in October 2025, phases in from today. It brings a whistle-to-whistle ad ban around live sport, a ban on live-odds stadium banners and tighter bonus rules.

A follow-up package addressing prediction markets is pencilled in for January 2027. Regulators elsewhere are tightening similar oversight — France’s gambling authority recently rolled out an algorithm to detect excessive players.