Autonomous region in Spain legalises sports betting

The governing council of the Spanish province of Andalusia has approved new gambling regulations for the region that legalise sports betting and should raise around Euro 1.65 million in additional tax revenue, according to local media reports.

Hitherto, Andalusia was the only regional government that did not permit sports betting.

The Andalusia Gambling Regulations cover gaming activities that are conducted within this, the most populated and second largest territory of the autonomous communities in Spain.

Online gaming, as well as land-based sports betting, will be affected by the new regulations, according to G3 Newswire. Spanish online gaming rules, which have been in effect since 2011, will be supplemented by the new rules.

The new regulations allow online sports betting, with specific gambling venues such as slot parlours, casinos, betting shops and bingo halls also permitted to offer such facilities.

However, the authority to offer sports betting will not be extended to non-gaming venues such as hotels and bars.

The local gaming market will also see a number of other major changes via the new regulations, including more rigid identity controls, age verification and player protection measures including but not limited to self-exclusion programs.

In Andalusia, gaming tax revenue from casinos, bingo and slot machines in 2015 reportedly stood at Euro 1,735.24 million. The state expects that the new regulations will result in gaming tax revenue doubling.

Last year, the revenue forecast for gambling taxes in the autonomous community reached Euro 1.15 million. That figure is expected to increase by as much as Euro 2.8 million in 2018 and as much as Euro 5 million the following year.

The hope is that the new rules will assist the local gaming industry’s continued recovery from decreases in revenue experienced between 2010 and 2014 when revenues fell between 40 to 51 percent.

The new regulations are the result of extensive lobbying by the Spanish gambling industry. G3 Newswire reports that online gambling operators would rather have cheaper autonomous provincial licensing than national licensing.

Currently, the Andalusian tax rate after prizes/win is 10 percent on profit compared with the 25 percent tax imposed by national legislation.

Isabel Fernandez Rodríguez, the president of the National Association of Entrepreneurs of Gaming and Recreational Halls (ANESAR), said the new regulations would result in the creation of additional jobs and more tax income for the state.

Related and similar