Spanish regulator hosts AML meeting with online gambling operators

The DGOJ has held its first sectoral meeting.

Spain.- The national gambling regulator DGOJ has held its first sectoral meeting on the prevention of money laundering and financing of terrorism with online gambling operators. The conference was held in collaboration with the Treasury and money laundering prevention agency Sepblac.

The meeting took place at the DGOJ’s headquarters in Atocha, Madrid. Representatives from licensed online gambling operators joined regulatory and supervisory bodies to discuss the current challenges in the prevention of money laundering and ​​regulatory compliance.

The event was inaugurated by Mikel Arana, director general of the DGOJ and treasury advisory member Irene Sánchez Pérez. Arana then moderated the various presentations in which the main experts from the Financial Intelligence Unit and Supervisory Authority for the prevention of money laundering analysed regulatory developments and sanctions at a European and international level and presented findings from inspections of operators. They also spoke about the role of financial intelligence in the prevention and detection of risky operations, among other topics.

This was followed by a round table discussion, with the participation of Alberto Navarro, deputy assistant director of inspection at the DGOJ and representatives from Sepblac, allowing operators to raise questions. The objective was to create a “continuous and open space for dialogue and exchange of knowledge, and the challenges and improvements between the public sector and authorised online gaming operators”. It is expected that this event will be repeated on successive occasions.

Meanwhile, new identification requirements for gambling in Spain have been proposed in a bid to prevent minors from accessing gaming machines. The PSOE, the party to which prime minister Pedro Sánchez belongs, has proposed the introduction of identification systems that would prevent minors and self-excluded players from using slots. It also wants to impose rules for a “less addictive” design for online games. 

The proposal was approved by the Spanish parliament’s cross-house Commission for the Study of Addiction Problems this week. It will now be debated and voted on in Congress and then the Senate. No date has yet been set for the debate. 

The DGOJ reported that online gross gaming revenue in Spain reached €348.1m in Q3. That’s a rise of 14.4 per cent compared to the same quarter in 2023 and 0.5 per cent from Q2 of this year. The number of gambling accounts rose by 1.7 per cent against the previous quarter, while deposits and withdrawals rose by 23.9 per cent and 30.3 per cent year-on-year respectively. The monthly average of active game accounts rose by 33.3 per cent year-on-year to 1,443,615 and the monthly average of new game accounts rose by 42.4 per cent to 153,181.