Gambling ads in Spain will be permitted, but only between 1 and 5 a.m. each night. These are according to new proposals put forward by the country’s government.
This follows on from restructures to betting in the country, which began at the backend of last year.
Strict proposals
Earlier this week, Spain’s Minister of Consumer Affairs Alberto Garzón met with the country’s iGaming industry. The likes of JDigital and CeJuego were present. At this meeting, they spoke about the government’s plans for online and land-based gambling.
20minutos, a Spanish media outlet, reported that a ‘first-round’ proposal would include restrictions for tv and radio ads. They would be permitted, but only for four hours – starting from 1 a.m. local time.
Most notably for affiliates, internet ad restrictions will also be introduced. However, the details of these won’t be revealed until the fully-drafted proposal is released. This is expected to happen within the next few weeks.
The need for a fair market
JDigital Chairman Mikel López de Torre was present for the discussions. Afterwards, he released a statement saying that he had a “positive assessment” of Thursday’s meeting. But despite this, he wants to see the full proposal before drawing a conclusion.
López warned about the dangers of over-regulation, referring in particular to Italy. In particular, he referred to the fact that the country’s Dignity Decree had failed to reduce the number of online gamblers. Moreover, gamblers had instead turned to unregulated operators.
In the same statement, the JDigital chief also mentioned that Spain has one of Europe’s lowest problem gambling rates. He urged the government to introduce “fair, equitable and proportionate regulation of the reality of gaming in Spain”.
Last month, an independent consumer rights agency had called for a credit card gambling ban in Spain. This would be similar to the one that was recently announced in the UK, coming into force from April 2020.
