Spain Releases Harsh 2020 Gambling Restrictions As A Safety Precaution

Given the reality of how gamblers will react when confined to their homes, and the dire financial circumstances some find themselves in which could lead to irrational behaviour, the Spanish government decided to take decisive action by limiting the volume, tone and messaging of gambling advertisements.

A Spanish royal decree was implemented on 1 April 2020, with express guidelines on how the country would further tackle the pandemic. Among various other measures, stringent restrictions were placed on the online gambling industry with regards to marketing and advertising.

Facts Gambling Clampdown

Paragraph 6 of section 3 of the decree makes clear that the monarchy sees fit to limit the intensification of partaking in online gambling, listing casino games, bingo, and poker as part of the definition. This was so that no compulsive or pathological behaviour be promoted during a time when boredom would be rampant.

“Therefore, given the implications of the declaration of the state of alarm in terms of mobility and leisure offer available to citizens, to avoid the intensification of the consumption of online gambling (in particular, casino games, bingo and poker ), which can lead to compulsive or even pathological consumption behaviours (especially to protect minors, young adults or people with gaming disorders at a time of increased exposure), the commercial communications carried out by gaming operators are limited at the state level, including entities designated for the commercialization of lottery games.”

This restriction takes into consideration minors, young adults, and people with gambling disorders, especially. For this reason, all commercial communications by gaming operators would be limited at state level.

More Information Industry Clarification

While the warning of limitations was in place, the article did not stipulate the guidelines for betting merchants, but these have been clarified by the council of ministers, by an article sent mere hours later.

The measures put in place to limit the gambling industry in Spain are as follows:

Betting operators may not offer any cash offers, bonuses, discounts, gifts, multipliers, prizes or any other form of promotions to attract both new and current customer bases to play on their platforms.
Betting operators may not advertise or market their businesses via audio-visual means during peak hours, limiting advertising slots to between 1 am and 5 am.
Betting operators may not use third party services and affiliates to market their services via audio-visual means unless it is done between 1 am and 5 am.
Betting operators in Spain may not advertise or market their services via emails, or any other social network, including social media platforms.

The government has made clear that any breach of these regulations will be viewed as a serious infraction of the law (Law 13/2011, of May 27, on the regulation of gambling).

Baccarat Play By The Rules

While online gambling services may continue for the sake of entertainment, the restrictions will challenge how the industry is conducted within the country and could place an economic burden on some of the operators affected.

At GamblersPick we encourage full co-operation with these, and any other regulations laid out by your regulatory authority, as we standby responsible gambling protocols.