New year resolutions arrived bang on time for Spain’s gambling sector as in the first week of January, the country’s coalition government – formed by parties PSOE and Unidos Podemos – unveiled its plans for updated gambling regulations.
The coalition outlined six specific actions, similar to those introduced in 2005 to prohibit tobacco products from sponsorship deals, as well as restrictions on promoting gambling in the media.
Following the publication of the government’s plans, most of Spain’s online gambling operators were up in arms, protesting against what they described as harsh limits. Moreover, the trade group representing Spanish-licensed online operators, Jdigital, challenged the government to produce hard data proving that gambling represented a public health problem in Spain.
Despite the protests, on July 9, Spain’s Ministry of Consumer Affairs – headed by minister Alberto Garzón – sent a draft of its Royal Decree on gambling advertising to the European Commission for approval. The Commission, in turn, in July said it did not have any objections to Spain’s plans to significantly restrict gambling advertising.
This cleared the way for Garzón to forward the Decree to the Council of State – meaning that Spain’s new online gambling marketing restrictions, affecting casinos online in Spain, will likely come into effect this month, depending on final approval by the Council of Ministers.
The new regulations will severely limit online gambling advertising, including on television, radio and online video platforms – in fact, advertising on these platforms would be limited to a four-hour window starting at 1am.
Moreover, gambling operators would be prohibited from sponsoring sports teams, leagues and competitions – which means that gambling names and logos will, if the restrictions come into effect, disappear from sports jerseys and sporting venues. Nonetheless, this didn’t stop some online gambling operators from continuing to sign shirt sponsorship deals with La Liga football clubs.
Apart from advertising and visibility within sporting contexts, the new regulations would also impose strict limits on bonus offers – by restricting bonuses to customers who have made a minimum of three deposits, welcome bonuses would be eliminated.
The restrictions will not end there, however, as in July, minister Garzón said that setting strict limits on promotion and advertising were just the first step – the minister said that, together with other ministers, he was considering the possibility of reallocating some of the licence fees paid by gambling operators towards initiatives aimed at tackling problem gambling. Moreover, he said that such initiatives would not be limited to online operators as he would also be considering ways of curbing land-based gambling, including sports betting shops.
Garzón is dead set on introducing these new regulations – and it is very unlikely that these regulations don’t come into effect in weeks.
Disclaimer: Play responsibly. Players must be over 18. For help visit https://www.gamcare.org.uk.