Operator News
Spain – Balearic Islands passes new gaming rules
By Phil - 30 August 2017
The Government Council of the Balearic Islands have approved decrees regarding casinos and sports betting with the objective of further developing the industry and bringing in stricter controls.
The regulations, drawn up and approved by the Balearic Islands Gaming Commission took into account the opinions of the local industry, employers, trade unions as well as the State and the Advisory Council, as reported in a press release.
New regulations will put into place a number of player protection measures including the protection of minors as well as self exclusion programmes. Operators will also be required to clearly highlight the dangers of gambling addiction on their premises. The new regulations have already been looked on favourably by the EU.
Work, Trade and Industry Secretary for the Balearic Islands Iago Negueruela said: “The main development is that Brussels has given the approval to the casino regulations as well as sports betting halls, thus avoiding the concentration of new gambling halls in one street and it is also possible that each casino may have a branch on the island where it operates.”
Crucially the regulations allow each authorised casino to open an accessory gaming room as an appendix to the main room, located outside the premises where the casino is located, and within the territorial scope of each island, which in no case may exceed 60 percent of the area of the casino’s playing area. This means that the three casinos located on the Balearic Islands will finally be permitted to run an annexed casino away from their existing operation.
Meanwhile, in order to avoid the over concentration of sports betting shops and gaming halls in the same location new rules establish a minimum distance between them. These will stand at 500 meters in capital city Palma and 250 meters for the rest of the municipalities on the islands.
The four largest islands in the Balearics are Majorca, Minorca, Ibiza and Formentera. The archipelago forms an autonomous community and a province of Spain, with Palma as the capital city. While the primary purpose of the new law is to fill the legal vacuum and promote responsible gaming the law is also designed to take advantage of the boom in sports betting on the internet by allowing land based sports betting.
