Spain’s gambling regulator the DGOJ has launched a public consultation on proposals to tighten rules around celebrity and influencer gambling marketing, customer acquisition promotions, and search engine advertising.
According to consultation documents from the Ministry of Consumer Affairs and DGOJ, the reforms aim to enhance consumer protection measures. This follows the partial overturning of Spain’s gambling advertising restrictions by the Supreme Court in 2024.
Among the measures being considered are new rules governing the use of celebrities and influencers in gambling advertising. These are alongside tighter restrictions on promotional bonus campaigns aimed at customer acquisition.
The proposals would also seek to limit the visibility of gambling-related content in organic search engine results unless users are actively searching for betting or gambling products.
The consultation is due to run until 22 June. Spanish players, industry stakeholders and other organisations with links to gambling are invited to give their opinion on the proposals.
“The reforms aim to strengthen controls, improve prevention, and provide more tools to combat illegal gambling,” the DGOJ said. “This will allow the law to better adapt to the digital environment, especially the growth of online gambling.
“Current regulations have been in effect for 15 years. The reform aims not only to update the legislation but also to broaden consumer protection.”
Wider gambling reforms in Spain
The consultation forms part of a broader package of gambling reforms being developed by the Ministry of Consumer Affairs. Other changes include the creation of a mandatory early-detection algorithm designed to identify potentially harmful gambling behaviour.
According to the Ministry, the system will use real player data and be implemented across all licensed operators, with authorities estimating it could improve current detection rates for problem gambling by 10 percentage points.
The Ministry has also outlined plans to introduce mandatory responsible gambling warnings within gambling advertisements. These would mirror health warnings used across cigarette packaging and include statistics on gambling losses, such as data stating that 75% of players lose money.
However, while work remains ongoing to improve protection measures, there are wider issues for the government and regulator. In November last year, a report by EY suggested that Spain’s unregulated online gambling market is far larger than previously documented.
Key findings included that 23.4% of respondents had played on unregulated platforms at least once, either knowingly or not. Another 9.3% openly recognised using illegal operators. On top of this, nearly half of users who believed they were playing only on regulated sites had actually accessed unauthorised domains.
With this, EY estimated that illegal online gambling in Spain generated €231m in 2024. This was the equivalent of 16% of the country’s regulated online gambling market.
Share