Supplier News
Spain – Gaming resurgence underway in Spain
By Phil - 8 December 2016
The University of La Carlos III Madrid and the Codere foundation have presented their Annual Report on Gambling in Spain.
According to the findings of the reports, which were presented last week at the Casino Gran Vía de Madrid, and were compiled by the Institute for Policy and Governance (IPOLGOB) the market now accounts for three per cent of Spain’s gross domestic product.
Professor of Sociology at the University Gómez Yáñez explained that in 2015 a total of 1,330 new jobs were created by the private gaming sector in 2015 and that the growing gaming industry in Spain is creating high quality jobs “with a very high degree of stability.”
The study revealed that online gaming continued its upward trend in 2015 and that €8.56bn was spent via regulated online gambling sites. At the same time the land based sector saw signs that it was returning to pre crisis levels of €25.5bn in 2015 a level of spending which had not been seen since 2001 and a 5.9 per cent increase compared to 2014. According to researchers the surge in land based gaming are down to legislative changes in a number of communities in Spain such as Madrid which has changed gaming laws to allow bingo halls and casinos to open in city centres. In addition lottery spending via state run lotteries reached €8.7bn in 2015.
Tax revenue generated by the gaming industry stood at €1.63bn. Of this amount €451m was raised via the tax payable on lottery prizes (in 2012 the government introduced a new lottery tax of up to 20 per cent on prizes of more than €2,500).
Meanwhile the autonomous regions collected €1.059bn – €23m less than in 2014. This, according to the study, was due to a fall in income generated by bingo (€247.7m down 10 per cent), but it had been compensated in part by an increase in casino tax revenue (€61.8m up €5m than in 2014) and an increase in sports and horse racing betting (€25.5m up 45.9 per cent). Meanwhile tax income for the regions generated by slot machines in bars and hotels contributed around €721.6m a similar amount to 2014. In addition gaming paid €114m in state taxes – €22m less than in 2014.
The biggest increase has been in sports betting especially over the internet. According to the report sports betting turnover in 2015 (land based and online) increased by as much as 41.3 per cent compared to 2014 and stood at €5.39bn. Of this amount 78 per cent was gambled online.
