European Gaming Lawyer magazine Spring 2014 | Page 30

Regulation of Online Slots and Exchange Betting:

Spain moves in the right direction

Santiago Asensi, Managing Partner and Alla Serebrianskaia, Associate, Asensi Abogados

I

Santiago Asensi

Alla Serebrianskaia

n June 2012, a new legal and
regulatory scenario for the online
gaming market was launched in
Spain. Since that moment, this
activity has been gradually refined,
amended and improved as a result of the continued
cooperation between operators and the Administration.
As licenced companies can only offer those online
games that are legally approved, one of the main
changes demanded by operators was the approval
of a wider offer of games, especially online slots and
exchange betting.
After long months of studies, analyses and
evaluations performed by the General Directorate for
Gambling Regulation (DGOJ), always with the active
participation of the different gaming operators and
despite the objections of part of the land based sector,
in April 2013 the DGOJ published its decision in favor
of regulating these two new products and as of today,
both regulatory proceedings are already underway.
According to the regulatory process announced by
the DGOJ, the first step after the drafting of the relevant
Ministerial Orders by the DGOJ and prior to holding a
public consultation, was to circulate the drafts among
the different autonomous regions in Spain in order
to receive their feedback and then, either considering
them or not, to publish the draft regulations for public
consultation. Unexpectedly, during this first phase the
first draft regulations for online slots and exchange
betting were improperly leaked and published.

30 | European Gaming Lawyer | Spring Issue | 2014

Consequently, from the 13th of February 2014,
interested parties had the chance to consider those
first drafts, although comments were not at that stage
accepted except from the regional authorities.
On the 10th of March 2014, after the meeting
held between the DGOJ and the different regional
authorities, the draft regulation for online slots and
for exchange betting games was officially published by
the DGOJ for public consultation for the term of 15
working days. These official versions include just some
few changes to the previous versions that were leaked
about a month earlier.
Therefore, at the time of writing this article, the
drafting process relating to the regulation of these two
new products is currently in the public consultation
stage. Interested parties are invited to provide
comments to the DGOJ by Thursday, 27th March 2014.
In parallel, the draft Ministerial Orders were
submitted on the 18th March to the European
Commission for its review and also for consultation
at European level. Interested parties may provide
their comments and arguments in this process by the
deadline of 19th June 2014.
Once the European public consultation term
finishes, the next stage at federal level will be based on
the statement of conformity of the Secretary of State of
the Ministry of Treasury followed by the Report from
the Ministry of Treasury’s General Technical Secretary.
Lastly, once all the corresponding statements and
reports have been collected, the regulatory process