The Ministry of Social Rights, Consumers and Agenda 2030 has fined 26 online gaming operators, including Betfair, 888 and Codere, more than three million euros for serious violations of current regulations, as reported in a statement on Tuesday.
Specifically, the Department led by Pablo Bustinduy has published a new round of sanctions for serious and very serious infringements on 32 operators in the betting and online gaming sector in Spain, with fines exceeding a total of 33 million euros.
Of these 32 infringements – issued by the General Directorate of Gambling Regulation (DGOJ) – six were very serious and targeted foreign online gambling operators operating without a license in Spain. These sanctions classified as very serious entail a fine of 5 million per operator, in addition to the blocking of their pages.
The other 26, which are serious, are imposed on operators who, despite having a license in order, incur some type of infringement classified in article 40 of law 13/2011 on the regulation of gambling.
Among the operators fined for serious violations are, among others, 888 Online, which will have to pay 250,000 euros for not having respected the technical requirements of the legislation relating to software and communication systems and for having used unapproved or unauthorized technical systems.
Beatya Online was also fined 300,000 euros for failing to comply with the technical requirements of the legislation relating to software and communication systems.
For its part, Betfair was fined 100,000 euros for failing to comply with its obligations under the law regarding responsible gaming and player protection.
Electraworks Ceuta will also pay 512,000 euros for three different infringements classified in Article 40 of the law: allowing access to the game to persons who are prohibited from doing so, using unapproved or unauthorized technical systems and failing to comply with the technical requirements of the legislation relating to software and communication systems. It is for this last reason that Codere is also sanctioned, with a fine of 17,500 euros.
Therefore, the sanctions vary depending on the infringement committed, reaching 3 and a half million euros in total for 26 sanctions.
The six operators that will be blocked due to very serious violations are XYZ Entertainment, Moonrail Limited, EOD Code SRL, Samaki, Lone Rock Holdings and Novaforge. Furthermore, a fine of 5 million euros each (30 million euros in total) is imposed.
So far this year, and taking into account this latest round of fines, Consumi has imposed 58 serious and very serious fines, for a total of almost 111 million euros.
The latest amendment to the Gambling Regulation Law established that serious and very serious administrative infractions will be published on the DGOJ website. Since then, in July 2021, 212 fines have been announced, totaling €496 million.
