A.J. Koehn

Gambling licensees in Spain have been told to prepare for a year of regulatory changes and new compliance orders.

The message was delivered by Andrés Barragán, Secretary General for Consumer Affairs and Gambling, who holds Spain’s portfolio for the ongoing development of federal orders that oversee the authorisation of gambling licences.

Andrés Barragán

Barragán addressed delegates at the FEJAR Conference on the rehabilitation of problem gamblers and the coordination of Spanish agencies needed to combat gambling harms.

In his address, the Secretary cited long-held concerns that Spain operates under what he described as an ‘irregular framework’ in its ability to minimise problem gambling risks.

As such, the Ministry of Consumer Affairs will seek to execute its long-held mandate to centralise safer gambling tools and systems, taking on full control of the oversight of gambling and its engagement with the Spanish public.

“We have a serious public health problem with online gambli..

The Senate of Romania has approved two bills that will apply new restrictions on gambling’s engagement and exposure with the general public.

Announced by MP Raluca Turcan, of the National Liberal Party (PNL), the bill is titled “Protect the Age of Innocence” and received approval from the Senate. The bill will increase Romania’s gambling age from 18-to-21.

Turcan was the author of the PNL’s proposal to “reset Romania’s gambling age to 21”, in response to a report by International NGO Save the Children, which ranked Romania as Europe’s highest rate of youth problem gambling.

Her bill will progress to the Chamber of Deputies for final readings and if approved there, it will be signed into law by Niscusor Dan, President of Romania.

If the bill is fully approved, Romania will join other European markets like Belgium, Lithuania and the Netherlands in raising the minimum age for gambling from 18 to 21.

There are also attempts to introduce the same restrictions in neighbouring Bulgaria,..

Bulgaria’s gambling sector has opposed a draft bill that proposes an increase in the minimum gambling age from 18 to 21.

Earlier this month, populist party ITN presented a draft proposal to amend the Gambling Act in a way that would forbid anyone under the age of 21 from gambling – extending the definition of vulnerable people to also include those aged 18-20.

“The proposed changes relate to both land-based and online gambling,” ITN said. “We believe that this will contribute to the correct development of our young citizens, who will be occupied with activities other than those leading to heightened risks of addiction and negative impact on their lives.”

‘Draft goes against constitution’

Four gambling trade bodies have now come out with an official statement countering the proposal, arguing first and foremost that it goes against the Bulgarian constitution.

The Gambling Industry Association, the Bulgarian Gaming Association, the Bulgarian Association of Gambling Activities, and th..

With new Dutch PM Rob Jetten setting into power, his coalition’s action plan has room to clash with the gambling regulator on two key areas.

This was raised by Michel Groothuizen, Chairman of Dutch gambling regulator Kansspelautoriteit (KSA), in a letter addressed to Jetten and all other policymakers part of the new coalition government.

“The new cabinet wants to ‘protect the vulnerable from profiteers’. There Jetten easily finds us on his side,” Groothuizen said in his statement.

“With the further ‘strengthening the duty of care of online gambling providers’ and the ‘harder tackling of illegal gambling sites’, the ambitions of the new cabinet also fit seamlessly with those of the KSA.”

However, the KSA Chair expressed concern on several points in the coalition’s seventy-page manifesto, which he said are “well-intentioned” but could prove “not very helpful”.

The first provision mandates a full ban on online gambling advertisements, on top of an already existing ban on gambling sp..

The Regional Council of Darmstadt has vowed to continue strengthening the parameters of the OASIS gambling self-exclusion scheme.

The Council is charged with the management of OASIS (Online Abfrage Spielerstatus), operated as the central self-exclusion system of Germany’s Fourth Interstate Gambling Regime (GluNeuRStV).

Publishing its 2025 update, Regierungspräsidium Darmstadt detailed that more than 5.2 billion queries were processed through OASIS during the year.

Darmstadt defines “queries” as individual checks made by GluNeuRStV-licensed operators against the central OASIS database of self-excluded players. As noted by the authority, “the figure underlines the significance and scale of the OASIS system in safeguarding German gambling’s compliance infrastructure.”

GluNeuRStV licensing requirements mandate that each licensed operator — land-based and online — must verify a customer’s status with the OASIS database before permitting participation.

The authority confirmed that the n..

Romania’s gambling regulator, the ONJN, has finalised the contract for the development of a new self-exclusion IT solution to be rolled out nationwide.

The announcement comes from ONJN President Vlad-Cristian Soare, who shook hands with the leadership of the Bucharest-based National Institute for Research and Development in Informatics (ICI), which will be tasked with creation of the tool.

Replacing the existing technical standard, the new solution will implement a modernised infrastructure that allows for remote player self-exclusion through ID and biometric verification scans.

“I said from the beginning that self-exclusion will not remain a project on paper. It is a commitment that I carry out, step by step,” Soare said on LinkedIn.

The agreement is one part of a long list of ideas that the ONJN is working on implementing to improve Romania’s self-exclusion system, which safer gambling proponents have long argued is outdated and represents a risk to the population.

It was just r..