Legislation
Spain – Spanish Government to review online sports betting regulation
By Phil - 19 July 2018
The Minister of Culture and Sport, José Guirao, has expressed his concern regarding the proliferation of internet sports betting and announced that the Executive is now considering revising online gaming laws.
“We have to see how far we can go in regulating it,” he said.
Guirao made the comments during his first appearance in the Congress of Deputies, after recognising that the growth of sports betting online had caused “the decline in the performance of the pools” which in turn impacted the state’s role in sports.
Member of the Compromis Party Joan Baldoví applauded the government initiative and stated that his party had already put forward a suggestion to prohibit the advertising of sports betting as it was “causing serious addiction problems among adolescents.”
Guirao also added that the government is currently planning to review Spain’s sports laws, which date back to 1990, which is why he has convened the Sports Sector Conference, which will meet for the first time on July 23. Changes he said would only be made with the consensus of the Spanish autonomous communities as well as sports associations and other sports bodies.
The announcement comes as the Spanish Congress of Deputies will debate a non-legislative motion, which would strengthen preventive measures against gambling addiction. The proposals were put forward by the conservative People’s Party after data collected by the Family Studies Institute, a leading Spanish think tank, concluded that pathological gambling among young people has grown in recent times due to the “boom in sports betting”.
Image caption: Spain’s Minister of Culture and Sport, José Guirao
Image By Montserrat Boix – https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=68959753
