Spain's nuevo reglamento
The good news is that Spain's new gaming laws will most probably allow operators from overseas, says Santiago Asensi, managing partner of Spanish gaming law specialists Asensi Abogados. The bad news is that they might become irrelevant before they're even passed...
THE SECTORIAL GAMING Commission, the body that groups mainly the gaming authorities from all different Spanish Regions, will meet tomorrow to discuss the first draft of new laws that will regulate the Spanish online gaming sector.
It has taken three years since in December 2007, Act 56/2007, ‘Measures to Develop an Information Society,’ was passed by the Spanish Parliament’s Chamber of Deputies, featuring the principles that should govern the online regulation for gaming. In short, these are:
1. To ensure the compatibility of the new regulation with consumer legislation.
2. To establish regulation egaming activities according to EU principles.
3. To set up a system of control over egaming that guarantees secure and fair market conditions for operators and proper protection for users. In particular, it must regulate the activity operators who already have licences granted by EU member states.
4. To establish a tax system over egaming services according to the origin of the operations liable for taxation. Similarly, the regulation must come up with a system for distributing the tax take between the federal administration and Spain’s 17 autonomous regions.
5. To ensure that egaming may only be performed by the operators authorised to do so.
6. That the administration of egaming activities is performed by the federal administration when the sphere of those activities is the entire national territory, or when it covers more than one autonomous region.
The good news is that most operators expect the legislation to meet the second and third of those principles and allow operators granted EU licences to operate in Spain.
The bad news is that whether it is discussed tomorrow or not, the fourth of those principles “ the division of tax take between the central and regional governments “ will be key to discussions running smoothly.
If the new system fails to accommodate the regional governments’ demands, they are likely to draft their own regulation at local level that will conflict with the national initiative.
We will have to wait and see, therefore, if the first draft accomplishes the objectives set out in 2007. Many things have taken place since then, but in any case, they should at least set the terms of debate.
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