Spain opens consultation on deposit limits for online gambling

The Spanish regulator has launched a consultation on the Royal Decree on Responsible Gaming Environments.

Spain.- The Spanish gambling regulator DGOJ has opened a consultation on the government’s new “Royal Decree on Responsible Gaming Environments”. The legislation seeks to continue Spain’s imposition of tighter rules for the gambling sector, introducing deposit limits and other measures.

The legislation proposed by the Ministry of Consumer Affairs and approved in March outlines a cross-operator system of deposit limits for online gambling and a centralised monitoring system that will track player activity across licensed operators in order to make the limits enforceable. 

The DGOJ said: “The system will track deposits made by a player across various operators where they have accounts. The goal is to prevent players from exceeding a designated deposit limit within a specified timeframe.”

All licensed operators will have to record and report ‘risk profiles’ on customers under the age of 25. The government intends to implement the new player monitoring system and other measures by the start of next year 2024. It says the measures will make Spain’s surveillance of gambling operators the toughest in Europe. The consultation will be open until October 16.

In April, the DGOJ) has reported that it had sanctioned 20 online operators for serious or very serious infractions in the second half of 2022. It issued more than €35.5m in fines and suspended the licences of seven operators.

The Ministry of Consumer Affairs said that seven operators had committed “very serious” breaches. These were banned from offering online gambling in Spain for two years and were fined €5m each. Meanwhile, 13 operators were fined a combined €560,000 for “serious” infractions.

See also: Spanish police arrest 17 over match-fixing allegations