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Poker in Denmark

Introduction

Capital: Copenhagen

Population: 5,479,000

Currency: Danish Krone (DKK)

Timezone: UTC+1

 

Denmark has a small but growing gambling economy.

Although the European Casino Association only lists 6 licenced casinos in the country on the Jutland Peninsula, they brought in a combined €58 million in 2015 – the latest available data. Their revenue was up by 3.5% compared to 2013. Visitorship was up by 10%.

In the meantime, online gambling revenue has also shown an around 1% growth year-on-year at the end of 2018. What’s even more promising is that casino games, including poker, are taking a bigger chunk of that market too – gambling in most European countries is dominated by sports betting.

In Denmark, however, casino games account for 33.5% of the Danish gambling revenue, and the money they brought in increased by 16% in 2018 year-on-year.

Also, the Danish gambling market is often cited as an example for other countries in terms of its safety and its recent growth

Poker is quite popular in Denmark. They’re one of the 11 nations to have a WSOP Main Event champion outside the United States.

Famous Danish Poker Players

The Danish man who claimed the World Series of Poker Main Event title was Peter Eastgate in 2008. At the time, he held the record for the youngest Main Event champion, winning at the age of 22. However, his record was broken the very next year by Joe Cada.

Eastgate beat a 6,844-player field and won $9.120 million along with the most coveted title in poker. Mostly thanks to that prize money, he’s #1 on Hendon’s all time money list for Danish players with $11.131 million in live tournament earnings.

Gus Hansen, the “Great Dane”, is one of the best known poker players in the world. He has $10.728 million in live tournament earnings, has won a WSOP Europe heads-up event, and was a regular feature on classic poker TV shows such as Poker After Dark and High Stakes Poker.

These days, he’s famous for frequently posting videos from Bobby’s Room at the Bellagio on his Instagram account. Bobby’s Room is the world’s most famous super high stakes cash game room.

However, Hansen’s legacy is somewhat tainted by his horrible online poker result. He’s lost over $20 million on online cash games – more than anyone in poker history. However, he was featured on People Magazine’s “Sexiest Men Alive” list in 2004.

– Playing Live Poker in Denmark –

   Live Poker Legislation in Denmark

Current rules and regulations are mainly dictated by the 2012 Danish Act on Gambling. Gambling regulation and licencing, both land based and online, are done by the Danish Gambling Authority.

  Live Poker Venues in Denmark

As we wrote in our intro, there are just 6 casinos operating in Denmark. They all have poker rooms. They are located in Copenhagen, Odense, Aalborg, Aarhus, Velje and Helsingør.

In the capital city, at Casino Copenhagen, they usually offer 6 tournaments each week, starting at 7 pm Monday through Saturday. Buy-ins range from DKK270 ($40) up to DKK12,770 ($1,885).

As for cash games, they run No Limit Holdem tables at DKK20/20 ($3/$3) and DKK20/50 ($3/$7.5) stakes. They also have Pot Limit Omaha tables at DKK50/50 ($7.5/$7.5) – however, those tables only run on Thursdays. 

At the Royal Casino Aarhus, they host a NLHE tournament every other Thursday that they somewhat oddly call “Thursday and Thursday Poker Tour”. The buy-in is DKK1,100 ($163) with an optional DKK500 ($75) rebuy. 

They also host cash games on Thursday, Friday and Saturday night with DKK20/40 ($3/$6) blinds. 

 

– Casinos and Poker Rooms in Denmark –

Casino Copenhagen

Royal Casino Aarhus

Casino Aalborg

Casino Odense

Casino Munkebjerg

Casino Marienlyst

Esbjerg Cardroom

  Online Poker Legislation in Denmark

 

For decades, the Danish state-owned company Danske Spil had a legal monopoly on online gambling in Denmark. This was actually the norm for the Scandinavian countries, think of Svenska Spel in Sweden.

The history of Danske Spil goes all the way back to 1949 when they started taking bets on soccer games. They still run horse races, dog races, and the state lottery to this day.

However, they no longer have a monopoly on online gambling. That is thanks to the 2012 Danish Act on Gambling which allowed foreign companies to apply for licences as well. Now online poker rooms such as partypoker, Unibet and ACR are available for Danish players. 

Casino Aalborg Denmark
Casino Aalborg

Casino Aalborg is located in the center of Aalborg near the harbor promenade.

Casino Copenhagen
Casino Copenhagen

Casino Copenhagen is situated in the Radisson Blu Scandinavia Hotel, which is in a central location.

Casino Odense
Casino Odense

Casino Odense is located in the old part of Odense and is just an 8-minute walk to the main station.

Casino Marienlyst
Casino Marienlyst

Casino Marienlyst is Denmark’s oldest casino and is conveniently located on the waterfront just outside the city.

Casino Munkebjerg
Casino Munkebjerg

Casino Munkebjerg is one of the most welcoming casinos in Denmark due to its comfortable atmosphere. 

Esbjerg Cardroom
Esbjerg Cardroom

Esbjerg Cardroom is conveniently located just outside the city of Esbjerg in the sports and entertainment district.

Royal Casino Aarhus
Royal Casino Aarhus

Royal Casino Aarhus is centrally located in a beautifully renovated historical building.