Denmark Opens Door to New Land-Based Casino Operators Under Regulatory Reform

Denmark’s gambling regulator has thrown open the doors to new land-based casino operators, giving companies until November 3, 2026, to apply for licences to enter the country’s brick-and-mortar casino market or renew an existing one. The Danish Gambling Authority, known locally as Spillemyndigheden, confirmed the application window marks the first formal chance this year for operators to compete for a spot in Denmark’s tightly controlled casino segment.

The reopened licensing round comes under Consolidated Act No. 1182, passed in September 2025, which allows Spillemyndigheden to grant land-based casino licences for terms of up to 10 years. That long runway gives successful applicants a decade of certainty to plan and invest in physical casino operations, a rare commitment in a European gambling landscape where online products increasingly dominate the conversation.

How Denmark Decides Who Gets a Licence

Every application that lands on Spillemyndigheden’s desk will be routed through a multi-agency consultation process before any decision gets made. The regulator said applications will be sent to the local municipality, the local Chief of Police, the Ministry of Taxation, the Ministry of Business, and, where relevant, the Danish Maritime Authority for review.

Spillemyndigheden said its evaluation centers on whether an applicant can be expected to run a casino “fully professionally and financially responsible manner.” That includes a look at professional suitability, meaning whether the applicant already has experience offering gambling products or is otherwise qualified to operate a physical casino, as well as financial standing, since running a land-based casino carries significant overhead. The regulator also weighs geographic factors, an applicant’s existing or potential customer base, and the level of detail in the project description submitted with the application, along with ownership structure and senior management credentials.

A Small but Established Market

Denmark’s land-based casino footprint is modest but established, with seven active licences currently covering venues in Copenhagen’s S and V districts, Helsingør, Odense, Vejle, Aarhus, and Aalborg. Depending on how many new permits Spillemyndigheden ultimately grants, this application round could expand the market or reshuffle its ownership structure among existing and new players. By the end of 2025, the regulator had issued 1,970 licences across all gambling categories nationwide.

The numbers behind the land-based segment tell a more complicated story than the licensing news alone suggests. According to Spillemyndigheden’s 2025 annual report, “Spilmarkedet i tal 2025,” land-based casino gross gaming revenue fell 5.6% to DKK378 million, or roughly $58 million, last year. That represents just 3% of Denmark’s total gambling market. Land-based bingo, which was recently liberalized, added another DKK30 million, or about $4.5 million, in GGR, less than 1% of the overall market.

Online Growth Continues to Outpace Physical Venues

Online casinos remain Denmark’s dominant gambling vertical by a wide margin. Online casino GGR hit DKK4.31 billion, roughly $646.5 million, in 2025, accounting for 38% of the country’s total gambling market. That figure climbed 12.1% year-over-year and has more than doubled, up 139%, since 2012. Spillemyndigheden noted that online gambling’s share of total GGR has risen every year since 2012 with the exception of 2022, while land-based revenue has trended downward over the same stretch. The regulator said the overall growth in market-wide GGR “is therefore driven by the rise in online gambling.”

Even against that backdrop, Spillemyndigheden’s decision to reopen the land-based licensing process signals the regulator still sees room to sustain, or even grow, the physical casino segment. It remains to be seen how many operators step forward before the November deadline, and how any new entrants might reshape a market that has stayed largely unchanged in scale for years. For bettors who enjoy the atmosphere of a physical casino floor, any expansion beyond the current seven venues would be a notable shift in a market otherwise dominated by online casino products.

The broader trend lines up with what regulators across Europe have been grappling with as digital wagering options multiply. Denmark’s approach, keeping land-based licensing deliberately competitive and long-term while online products expand on their own trajectory, offers a case study in how mature gambling markets try to balance legacy infrastructure against where consumer demand is actually headed. For now, the application window is open, and the next few months will determine whether Denmark’s casino floors get any new additions.