Hovsa-law has been repealed: Old Ole has resurfaced on local radio.

Welcome to Sunday’s bingo game, which is also a birthday game. Today we have Erik in tech—Elsa handles the phones, and the caller is Elna.

That’s how it sounds again at Radio Klitholm in Hvide Sande, among others.

At the beginning of the month, authorities allowed the popular radio bingo broadcasts to resume after a little over a year of involuntary pause.

The Folketinget (Danish Parliament) had previously banned money-based bingo where the caller and players were not in the same location. And that’s certainly the case with radio bingo.

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Players have missed radio bingo greatly

Jørgen Christensen is a co-founder and board member of Radio Klitholm in Hvide Sande, and he says that 500-600 radio bingo enthusiasts have been missing their weekly bingo games.

"It has been incredibly nice. You can’t imagine how many calls we’ve received with big thanks because we’ve finally managed to get started again. We began on Wednesday, and we had a fantastic game," says Jørgen Christensen.

> You can’t imagine how many calls we’ve received with big thanks because we’ve finally managed to get started again.

> Jørgen Christensen, co-founder of Radio Klitholm Hvide Sande

The nearby local radio station, Radio Ringkøbing, has also resumed the games. Here, it’s simply called *banko* instead of bingo. There’s no difference in meaning between the two words.

And across the country, the small non-commercial local radio stations are rejoicing over the fact that they’ve been granted the right to host bingo or banko again, thanks to the tax minister.

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It was a hasty solution

The Association of Local Media, SAML, is the nationwide umbrella organization for national associations representing non-commercial local electronic media in Denmark.

> Authorities were not aware at all, when changes were made to gambling legislation, that radio bingo and walkie-talkie bingo were being played around the country.

> Niels Aakjær Holst, chairman of SAML

The chairman of SAML, Niels Aakjær Holst, says that the ban on commercial bingo in Denmark did not actually affect the non-commercial local radio stations.

"The problem was that authorities were not aware at all, when changes were made to gambling legislation, that radio bingo and walkie-talkie bingo were being played around the country. Because there had never been a requirement to register these with the authorities before," says Niels Aakjær Holst.

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The tax minister changed the rules

Since January 1, 2025, it has effectively been banned for small, non-commercial local radio stations to host radio bingo. But in November, the tax minister proposed that radio bingo should again be allowed from 2026.

The bill aimed to "ease the rules for online casinos, including online bingo via walkie-talkie and local radio, by introducing a new type of revenue-limited permission."

The new permission costs 1,000 DKK annually for application and supervision, and revenue must not exceed one million DKK. The payout percentage must not be below 80%.

The permission is intended for small non-commercial associations, such as those offering bingo via walkie-talkie or radio.

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Fills a social need

Co-founder and board member of Radio Klitholm in Hvide Sande, Jørgen Christensen, wonders how 13 months without radio bingo could have passed. Especially since radio bingo fulfills a social need for the players.

"We hope that even more players will join us, as they should know we’re back in action again," says Jørgen Christensen.

In Hvide Sande, people have been able to play bingo over the radio since 1987.

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