Spain Prepares for Federal Gambling Legislation in 2021

Spain has always had a fairly progressive view of gambling harkening back to 1977 when it was first decriminalised. It was not until 2007, with the passing of the Law on Measures to Develop the Information Society, that they began to actively look to regulate online gambling.

To date the 2011 draft of the Gaming Act is the one in force, however, there has been one glaring issue with the Act, it is still enforced at a state level. Given that Spain has 17 autonomous states and two additional autonomous cities this has proven to be less than ideal for the gambling community.

 Federal Regulation On The Horizon

The Spanish Gaming Authority (DGOJ) announced that it had signed an agreement with the Spanish Association for Standardization (UNE) which would see the two entities collaborating on creating national legislative standards for gambling in Spain.

The agreement came into force on December 1st, 2020 and will remain in force for an initial period of two years. Should it be deemed necessary, and both the DGOJ and UNE agree, the cooperation can be extended for an additional two years.

The first order of business will be establishing a new body which will focus on representing the Spain’s gambling interest at a European Union level. This will comprise a critical review of the current legislation and how it stacks up against EU law, proposing a new online gambling standard that will apply nationally and creating the processes that will support the processing and enforcement of these new standards.

The body will also be responsible for ensuring that the newly Spanish gambling regulations are available in Spanish and then translated into other languages to ensure all participants and operators are well versed in the regulations and can abide by them without error.

Safer Gambling Gets A Boost

In addition to federal regulation regarding bet limits, payouts, game types, fee structures and taxation the country will also be investing in national Safe Gambling regulations to ensure the at-risk community is protected.

Two key outputs of their drive to ensure at-risk players are protected from gambling harms will be the launch of a national self-exclusion program and a national gambling registry to support it. As we’ve see across the EU this will require operators to consult the registry to ensure excluded players do no receive bonus offers and other marketing material.

There are also plans to apply national regulations to land-based venues which will see the casinos being responsible for reporting on potentially dangerous gambling behaviour and running safe gambling programs of their own.