Open licensing, split by function
Alderney
A Channel Island jurisdiction whose licence separates the customer relationship from the platform operation.
Licensed online casino
Spain
A licensed market with a general and singular licence structure and severe limits on advertising and bonuses.
| Product | Position | What that means |
|---|---|---|
| Online casino | Licensed | Commercial operators can be licensed to offer this product to local customers. |
| Sports betting | Licensed | Commercial operators can be licensed to offer this product to local customers. |
| Online poker | Licensed | Commercial operators can be licensed to offer this product to local customers. |
| Lottery | State monopoly | Reserved to a state or state-controlled operator; no commercial licence is available. |
How the market works
Spain issues a general licence for a category of activity and then a singular licence for each specific game type within it, so adding roulette or a new betting product is a licensing step rather than a commercial one. Licensing has been open since 2012, and the market is among the larger ones in southern Europe.
The 2020 royal decree on advertising reshaped the commercial environment: broadcast advertising was confined to an overnight window, welcome bonuses for new customers were prohibited, and gambling sponsorship of football shirts ended. Parts of the decree were subsequently annulled by the Supreme Court, and some promotional activity has returned, which makes Spain a market where the current rule set has to be checked rather than assumed.
Online gambling is regulated nationally, but land-based gambling belongs to the autonomous communities. An operator with both online and retail ambitions therefore deals with the national regulator and with regional ones separately.
Who regulates it
Dirección General de Ordenación del Juego (DGOJ), based in Madrid and operating under Gambling Act 13/2011. The Spanish regulator, which operates a two-tier licence and some of Europe's strictest advertising limits.
Licence types issued
- General licence (betting, other games, contests)
- Singular licence per game type
Questions about Spain
Other markets in Europe
Online licence tied to a land-based licence
Belgium
Online licences exist only as supplements to land-based licences, and advertising is prohibited.
Tied to land-based online casino
Open licensing per game type
Czechia
A licensed market with a mandatory central exclusion register that covers more than self-exclusion.
Licensed online casino
Open licensing
Denmark
An early licensing regime whose certification programme and exclusion register were widely copied.
Licensed online casino
Monopoly, with licensing legislated for 2027
Finland
One of Europe's last gambling monopolies, legislated to open to licensed competition from 2027.
State monopoly online casino
Open licensing, three verticals only
France
The largest European economy with no legal online casino: only betting, horse racing and poker can be licensed.
Prohibited online casino
Background reading
Legal and compliance
What a gaming licence actually covers
A licence is not a badge of quality and it is not valid everywhere. What it authorises, who it binds, and why one company often holds a dozen.
Legal and compliance
How gambling is taxed, and why the base matters
A tax on stakes and a tax on gross gaming revenue can carry the same headline number and produce completely different businesses.
Legal and compliance
How a company enters a new market
The sequence from legal assessment to launch, and the parts that routinely take longer than anyone plans for.
Legal and compliance
What grey and black markets actually mean
The industry uses three words for the legal status of a market and rarely defines them. Here is what each one means in practice.