Gambling is legal in Spain but for over 150 years, it was only limited to basic lotteries and all legal gambling was strictly controlled by the state. On 1977, Spanish government legalized skill based gambling while games of chances such as slot machines and other similar sorts of gambling were not legalized until 1981. Today, the Spanish gambling industry is booming, including the online casino gambling and as a matter of fact, Spain is one of the most gambling nations in the world, spending double as much on gambling each year as the UK.
UK was the first to license online casinos. Italy first blocked online gambling, then legitimized it. Now Spain has decided to follow suit and make online gambling legal and give licenses to online gambling companies.
The Spanish government has been working on the regulation of online gambling at the national level for some time. Certain provinces of Spain have also been looking to freely execute regulation at the regional level. Spain's cabinet approved the online gambling bill drafted by the gambling regulators and monopoly Loterias y Apuestas del Estado after key concessions were granted to the Spain regions.
The bill will regulate online gambling across a number of product lines such as casino game, poker and sports betting. It will explain the different activities being regulated and indicate the requirements to be met for each. A notable exception to the product line is lottery. When the bill has been enacted, it will create a regulatory body within the State Administration Services which has been designated as Comision del Juego or the Spanish Gaming Commission. This commission will be responsible for issuing of licenses and monitoring operator compliance. One of the key functions of the Spanish Gaming Commission will be giving prior authorization for advertising, promotional and sponsorship activities carried out by the licensed operators. Violations of the act, including operating online gambling services without a licenses, will be subject to heavy fines ranging from €100,000 to €50,000,000.
When it was revealed last month that the Spanish government wants to tax sports betting on turnover instead of profit there was an objection raised by the industry and its representatives. It is not known which taxation method has been adopted for the various online gaming products in the bill that has just been approved. However, it has been confirmed that all revenue collected will be given to the autonomous regions.
The Spanish government has verbalized its commitment to submitting the bill to parliament within the next few weeks. After passing through parliament, the bill will proceed to the Senate and then to the European Commission (EC). Industry experts expect the bill to reach the EC sometimes around July, 2011.
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1 comments:
It is better to fully legalize that to ban : )
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