iGamingExpert

Spanish gambling will pivot to a ‘new system of accountability’ for player protection built on new commands for licence holders to identify risks and intervene on gambling threats and prevent fallouts.

The message came from Mikel Arana, Director General of the DGOJ, as he was presenting the “Juego Seguro 2030” (Safe Play) programme for Spanish gambling, which has been co-designed alongside the Advisory Council of Responsible Gambling.

The programme will be implemented from 2026, through to 2030. It forms part of the DGOJ’s mission to ‘redefine a new regulatory philosophy’ and enhance both player protections and gambling environments.

Tackling problem gambling head-on

From 2026 onwards, the DGOJ will develop Safe Play initiatives based on the ‘core structure of comprehensive protection’, which it is confident will uphold ‘safe environments, and the analysis and diagnosis of harms and threats’.

The programme will not be applied as a legislative decree. However, the DGOJ will apply t..

Dutch gambling licence holders have been informed of new guidelines to ensure that marketing campaigns comply with ‘targeting rules’ set by the Kansspelautoriteit (KSA).

Since July 2023, the KSA has imposed a ‘ban on untargeted mass-market gambling advertising’, a policy applied across all Dutch media channels.

The ban formed part of the first revisions to the Remote Gambling Act (KOA), the legislative framework that launched the Netherlands’ regulated online gambling market in October 2021.

Under strict orders, licence holders must ensure that marketing campaigns target audiences aged over 24 years old, with campaigns required to demonstrate a minimum 95% compliance threshold.

Operators must also show evidence of age-gating, audience segmentation and protective algorithms, with clear instructions that campaigns should be terminated when these compliance tools are deemed insufficient.

Since 2023, the KSA has issued penalties of €400,000 to operators, including Bingoal, Hillside ..

The Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) has delivered its opinion that insolvency proceedings should enable EU states to freeze the bank accounts of non-European licensed online gambling operators.

The legal opinion, published on 5 March, was delivered by Advocate General Rimvydas Norkus in his review of Case C-716/24.

The AG was tasked with examining the interaction between “EU cross-border debt recovery and insolvency proceedings” and how certain mechanisms can be applied to offshore gambling operators operating outside of the EU’s remit.

The decision has been fuelled by a claim brought by a German player seeking to recover approximately €57,000 in online gambling losses from an operator incorporated in Curaçao. After obtaining a default judgment in Germany, the claimant applied to freeze bank accounts believed to belong to the operator in the member state of Cyprus using the European Account Preservation Orders (EAPO).

The EAPO scheme was created to enable creditors ..

The Ministry of Consumer Affairs of Spain has raised concerns over a noticeable growth in the number of women engaging in online gambling.

New insights published on 2024 data by the Dirección General de Ordenación del Juego (DGOJ), Spain’s Directorate of Gambling, recorded a 23% increase in the number of female players, representing the addition of almost 64,000 new women engaging in online gambling over the course of a single year.

Deeper analysis points to the Ministry’s concern that 60% of the total segment are aged under 35. The DGOJ was instructed to explain why it had recorded such an exceptional trend in 2024, and whether it reflects an anomaly in Spanish gambling participation or signals a structural shift in player demographics.

As cited: “The number of female players increased by 23.53%, meaning that almost 64,000 more women gambled online in Spain. This percentage is also higher than the growth in the number of male players during that same period.”

The Directorate under..