Operators active in Denmark have launched a new dedicated board for the handling of complaints related to advertising within the country’s gambling industry.
First announced last summer, the new Gambling Advertising Board (Spilreklamenævnet) will allow consumers and organisations to file complaints about gambling marketing activities.
Elite Gaming, Dansk Automat Brancheforening, Dansk Kasinoforening, Danske Lotteri Spil, Danske Spil, Det Danske Klasselotteri, Landbrugslotteriet, Royal Casino, Varelotteriet and the Danish Online Gambling Association have all signed up to support the initiative.
Judge Jacob Scherfig from Copenhagen City Court will serve as the first chairman of the new organisation.
Thomas Marcussen, clinic manager for the Research Clinic for Gambling Addiction at Aarhus University Hospital, and Lars Pynt Andersen, an associate professor at Aalborg University, will both join the board.
Other board members include Danske Spil’s legal director Kate Jacquerot, Morten Rønde, director of Danish responsible gaming organisation Spillebranchen, Erik Jensen from Casino Copenhagen and Dansk Automat Brancheforening chairman Gunnar Sørensen.
Jensen and Sørensen will only take part in decision making if a complaint submitted relates to land-based slot machines or casinos.
“In the gaming industry, we are very aware that we bear a responsibility for the users who use games,” Rønde said. “With the Gaming Advertising Board, we now have an effective watchdog, which must help to ensure and maintain a responsible and ethical marketing of games.”
The board has already received a complaint and has chosen to take up another case on its own.
In July last year, new rules came into effect in Denmark that prohibit the display of gambling brands alongside the logos of banks and also prevent products such as loans and credit cards being promoted alongside gambling products.