The two-year old Royal Decree 958/ 2020 on Commercial Communications for Gambling Activities remains a hotly debated issue within Spain’s betting and gambling sector.
The topic was much debated during the Gaming in Spain Conference in Madrid, reported SBC News on May 30.
Mikel Arana, director general of the Dirección General de Ordenación del Juego (DGOJ), during his keynote speech, while also speaking about safer gambling in the online sector, talked about Spain’s strict ad restrictions. He argued that the heavy restrictions have not caused a decline in player numbers.
His interpretation was challenged by several other speakers and audience members, with some claiming that they have slowed growth.
Jorge Hinojosa, director general of the trade association JDigital, declared, “The Royal Decree on Commercial Communication has slowed down the growth of the gambling industry in Spain. It has helped to make it less appealing to operators.”
He noted that the country has the second-lowest problem gambling rate behind Denmark. He added that advertising can help guide players away from unlicensed operators.
Hinojosa added, “We, the industry, maintain that advertising, contrary to what some people may believe, is a key tool to channelizing the citizen to legal gambling websites, with responsible, safe and legal engagement.”
Peter Marcus, group operations director of Entain, asked Arana if the restrictions might make key safer gaming objectives harder to achieve.
“On the one side you are saying that you want to make this business much more recreational, because the intensive players and the high percentage of revenue that comes from those few customers is your real concern – which I completely understand,” said Marcus. He continued, “On the other side, the only way to get a more recreational base of business and more people spending less money, which is what I think we all want, is to be able to market our product to those people.”
He said ad bans make operators more reliant on high-intensity customers because it is harder to appeal to the mass market.
Arana countered that the ban doesn’t apply to social media or to Google. “The size of the market in Spain before and after the Royal Decree on Commercial Communication is nearly the same,” he added. The number of new players has not decreased, “So what we assume is that [the market] is growing at the rate that it should,” he said.
Arana’s predecessor as Director General, Juan Espinosa, who now works at Silverback Advocacy, cautiously hinted that he doesn’t agree with Espinosa. He said that tightening marketing efforts leads to higher percentages of revenue coming from a small number of intensive players.
If regulators then put tougher controls on those players, “you are really limiting the way that the industry is able to develop in a sustainable fashion,” said Espinosa.
The most direct criticism of the policy came from Santiago Asensi, a gaming industry attorney, who declared, “I believe that the Decree on advertising is absolutely too far, it is incorrect.” He added, “An online portal is not a land-based casino that everyone knows where it is located. We are talking about something that is on the internet and needs advertising or marketing to be promoted and to be known by the players. So I think that the Royal Decree is a disgrace for the industry.”
During his talk, Arana said the regulator remains committed to strengthening safer online gaming provisions, while admitting there are large obstacles in the way.
He called Royal Decree 176/2023 on Safer Gaming Environments a “new approach to player protection” that establishes minimum standards that apply to all. He continued, “Some of you may think – and I can agree with you – that the message of responsible gambling of your companies goes beyond what the Royal Decree requires, so there’s no need to implement the new regulation.”
He congratulated such companies for their high standards, but added, “some operators in the market are far from what the Royal Decree has now made mandatory. This is not just a perception; contrary to what we have heard over the last two years, the Ministry of Consumer Affairs does not regulate based on perception, but on data.”
DGOJ statistics indicate that the top 1 percent of online players account for more than 40 percent of GGR. This “certifies that the imbalance in the Spanish market has increased exponentially in the recent years” and it impelled the regulator to act.
The new decree would create “different protection measures for up to five different types of players, depending on their behavior.” The types include all players, intensive players (those who lose €600 a week for three consecutive weeks), ages 18-25, players who exhibit risky behavior and self-excluded players, differently.
Early intervention is emphasized, he said. “[E]arly initiation into gambling activities increases the likelihood of developing a gambling disorder or is an indicator of the severity of such a disorder if it is manifest,” he said.
He also described a cross-operator deposit limit and noted “Fifty-six percent of the multi-operator players who have exceeded the maximum limit are part of the percentage of big losers.” Arana added, “There is an undeniable relationship between surpassing the limit, doing so in more than one operator, being part of the group of people who lose the most money, and showing symptoms of potentially having a gambling problem.”
He continued, “[W]e see the cross-operator deposit limit system as an additional tool that we will make available to the players with the aim of providing a safe gaming environment. It is intended to be a complementary system to (individual) operator limits and, of course, voluntary for the player.”
Espinosa called the system “an interesting idea” and added, “the data that (Arana) showed is compelling enough to make it worth a try.”
