This month last year, Spain’s consumer protection minister Alberto Garzon unveiled plans for a restriction on advertising by casinos and gambling companies to address growing addiction.
The new regulations have been published as a part of the consultation, with the government explaining that it had acted following a noticeable increase in gambling publicity. This had resulted in mounting concerns about the negative effects of this proliferation.
The omnipresence of gambling ads could desensitize the population to the risk of problem gambling and gambling addiction, demanding the need for new controls.
Since then, the government aims to implement considerable restrictions on broadcast advertising, limiting operators to promote their brands via radio and TV between 1:00 AM and 5:00 AM. Two exceptions are being made, however, for advertising around the real-money contest and sports broadcasts.
Real-money contests should be advertised around programming not suitable for those under 18 of age, and only between 10:00 PM and 6:00 AM.
Gambling publicity around live sports broadcasts, meanwhile, is still permitted for events that are happening between 8:00 PM and 5: AM. What’s more, advertising must not make any reference to bonuses or promotions or contain direct inducements to bet.
How Are Casinos Regulated in Spain?
Casino and online casinos, for that matter, are regulated by a central gaming authority, referred to as DGOJ, if you’re a stickler for details. They have been suspending and issuing licenses as it sees fit, and should suspect that a business is non-compliant with established industry practices.
Today, Spain’s government officials have no issue with established brands that follow the legal framework detailed by DGOJ, but authorities often shut down unauthorized betting platforms, which fail to meet mandatory consumer protection standards.
Spain’s iGaming success has been heady over the years, with more than a million betters participating in various gambling contests by the end of 2012. Of course, the number would later surge, and currently, 84.9 percent of adults partake in gambling contests in Spain.
This makes for a remarkable and considerable chunk of Spain’s 50 million citizens. Betting wasn’t always smooth sailing in the country. Curiously, though, Spain didn’t introduce slots – commonly known as “tragaperras” – until 2014, and the industry’s gambling sector has been mounting ever since.
The country had also had incessant growth across all gambling sectors since 2011, when the Gambling Act was adopted and promulgated. Spain has seen an almost unhindered growth over the past decade, with all verticals gaining from various gambling markets’ growing interest.
Can You Play in an Online Casino from Spain?
As you’ve probably expected, yes. The only condition is that every player must reach the legal gambling age, which is 18. The country has a considerably low incidence of gambling addiction among its population, with only 0.3 percent of players exhibiting or reporting problem gambling behaviour.
This puts Spain as one of the safest places to be if you enjoy online slot machine games. While hard-hitters can sometimes be temperamental, the regulators have set fail-safes in places, making it difficult for opportunistic operators to take advantage of customers.
Online Casinos Pay Fees Same as Every Other Business
Everyone pays taxes in Spain- online casinos are no exception here. If anything, casino operators are expected to meet the same criteria as other businesses.
The current rate of taxation for casino operators in Spain is 25 percent, but this fee may be subject to adjustment as the government is now emphasizing consumer protection more heavily.
The tax rate is one of the stiffest in the European Union, but that doesn’t stop casino operators from complying with government requirements in order to gain access to what is one of the largest industries on the continent.
New figures recently issued by DGOJ indicate a revenue growth of 17.7 percent year-on-year, meaning that the gambling industry is currently experiencing a boom.
As foreseen by the industry experts, the strong performance that online casinos have witnessed is mostly due to two reasons. Firstly, online Juegos de slots helped generate sales of 51.9m euros-30.5 percent than the previous year and 19 percent more than in quarterly comparison. The live roulette section recorded another considerable spike in growth, with sales skyrocketing a 75 percent increase on the previous year and scaled to €27m.
These revenue peaks have (according to the DGOJ) helped offset the fall seen in sports betting due to the pandemic, which saw many major sporting events that were canceled or delayed.
Therefore, betting revenue fell drastically in many states – including Spain, which experienced an income fall to only €68.1m. This proves a decrease of 20.8 percent compared to 2019 and a 38.4 percent when examining the first quarter of 2020.
Final Word
While online casino operators across Spain have gone fairly happy about their business, a new set of regulations is imminent. The officials are still working on reducing the exposure of consumers to gambling advertisements.
In many ways, Spain follows the U.S and Italy when it comes to casino gaming and gambling in Europe. The measure caused an uproar at first, and Spain followed up by reducing sponsorships between brands and sporting teams.
Today, online casinos are a much-appreciated segment of the gaming experience. While they weren’t initially popular, the ability to enjoy casino gaming products like craps, slots, table games, and poker was quickly appreciated by Spanish people.
Revenue has been strong in the last few months of 2020, with Spain witnessing some impressive results. Both online casinos and poker become successful with online casinos, still threatened by the advertisement reduction from 2020, is going strong.
