Legislation
Spain – Tax break for bingo halls in Galicia
By James - 1 November 2022The Regional Government of Galicia announced that in 2023 it will apply a major reduction on taxes that bingo halls have to pay. The decision was presented in the law of fiscal and administrative measures, presented with the budgets for the next period.
According to the local site El Diario, the Regional Government of Galicia is going to reduce the tax rate from the current 50% to 30% on bingo and electronic bingo. In exchange the companies must not decrease their workforce within certain limits compared to the previous year. If the number of staff goes down, the company will go back to paying 50%.
The government has applied this tax benefit to bingo halls as operations were affected by the pandemic with a number of bingo halls closing for good. There are 11 bingo halls in Galicia and the objective of the new bill is to allow activity to recover gradually.
Galicia has made several changes to its gaming laws of late. The Regional Government of Galicia approved its new gaming at the end of September updating regulations over the landbased sector. The text of the law increases protection measures for certain vulnerable groups, especially minors and sets limits on the number of establishments and gaming devices. The new law is very similar to the law in place since 1985 meaning that the industry is unlikely to grow further. Licenses instead of being granted permanently will now be valid for fifteen years.