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Spanish authorities are once again attempting to restore a gambling advertising ban struck down by the courts and are also taking the opportunity to demand that suppliers stay away from the black market.
The advertising of gambling could be broadly outlawed once again in Spain, if the government succeeds in passing planned changes to the country’s gambling law.
Amendments that would reintroduce the ban have been attached to the largely unrelated Customer Service Bill.
The draft, which is a tentpole piece of legislation for Spain’s ruling coalition, is designed to improve consumer complaints and otherwise has no explicit links to gambling.
But lawmakers and Spanish regulator the DGOJ, which strongly supports the return of an advertising prohibition, are once again seeking to use a major political project to fast-track changes to gambling regulations.
The ad ban was originally introduced in 2020 by a royal decree, but was struck down four years later by the Supreme Court, which told the authorities any prohibition of that magnitude needed to be enacted by a change to the law.
The government’s previous attempt to reintroduce the ban in March failed, after the public health bill it was attached to suffered a shock defeat by government rebels who were angry over the treatment of farmers.
Spain Joins Supplier Trend
In this renewed attempt, the government has gone further, using its amendments to add rules that would require gambling suppliers in Spain to sign up to a new register.
All types of suppliers, including platform providers and game aggregators, would be required to join the list and follow new rules that ban them from selling their content to gambling operators that target Spain without a licence.
Failure to follow the rules would incur fines of up to €1m and potential licence suspensions of up to six months.
The move reflects a growing shift across Europe to increase the pressure on suppliers and the sector’s relationship with black markets.
Authorities in the UK, Denmark, Sweden and Romania have either introduced new rules or stepped up their enforcement in this area over the past few years.
“Today all the responsibility is on the operators, and now the trend has gotten here to Spain and this is how they’ve found a solution," said Patricia Lalanda Ordóñez, a partner with Loyra Abogados law firm in Madrid.
If the Customer Service Bill is passed with its gambling amendments intact, it will also introduce new restrictions on banking for gambling operators.
Matching a nationwide drive to tighten anti-money laundering standards, gambling licensees would be required to manage all deposits and withdrawals through bank accounts based in Spain. Operators are currently permitted to use foreign accounts.
The high profile bill has been moving through the parliamentary process, although Spain’s parliament is now in recess until September.
Technological Challenges Ahead
Separately, the DGOJ is also preparing to deliver on several promised regulatory changes which could have a profound effect on the market.
A plan to require cross-operator deposit limits has been softened, meaning that although every operator must offer the service, it will be voluntary for players to sign up to it.
“Although not initially conceived as fully voluntary, I think the DGOJ understands the need to balance competing interests: safeguarding public health, protecting consumers and respecting company rights,” Lalanda Ordóñez told Vixio.
“They likely want to ensure the royal decree can withstand potential challenges before the Supreme Court, hence their cautious approach.”
However, all operators will be presented with the technological challenge of connecting to the system, which will be run centrally by the regulator.
The royal decree is likely to be approved this Autumn and will come into effect a year later, however for the nine months in the run-up to this date, operators will need to take part in a trial of the system to ensure they are compliant once the deadline arrives.
Based on the take-up of self-exclusion and other safer gambling tools, Lalanda Ordóñez believes a meaningful proportion of Spain’s most prolific gambling customers will sign up to the new deposit limits, with potentially knock-on effects for the market.
“It will have implications. On the one hand, once you have set this tool, it can encourage the player to use their favourite operators and the favourite operator is going to probably be the one that you’ve been playing with for a longer time, or one that is able to reach out to you with advertisements,” she explained.
“So this might be of detriment to smaller or medium-sized operators in Spain. We will maybe see more consolidation, more M&A."
2026 will also see the DGOJ roll out its new problem gambling risk-detection algorithm. All operators will be required to use the system for flagging players showing signs of harm, although they are permitted to build on the service with their own safer gambling tools.
