Online Gambling
Regulations still evade Spain
 February
11 - For the last few years the Spanish government has said that
it intends to formalize Spain's
online gambling legislation
to tax online gambling, protect its online gamblers, and
allow
EU online gambling
companies to provide free services in the country, however, as
yet nothing has happened.
In December 2007, the Spain's Congress of Representatives
approved the Law of Measures to Boost the Information Society, a
law designed to 'motivate' the government to
pass a bill to regulate online gambling and betting.
However, more than a year later, the government is still
dragging its feet.
The Spanish Association of Internet Bettors (Aedapi) has
estimated that the Spanish online gambling industry is
worth in excess of 200 million euros
per annum, which - if it were being regulated and taxed at 10
percent - would mean an additional 20 million euros in
government coffers each year.
In June last year Spain's Gambling Sectoral Commission was
called to order, which comprised Spain's Secretary of the State
of the Information Society, the Tax Agency, the
National Entity of Lotteries and Betting
(Online), members of the Ministry of the Interior and various
autonomous communities.
During the Commission, one of the speakers was quoted as saying,
'Online gambling regulation must happen in Spain so that online
gambling taxes that have traditionally been paid in the United
Kingdom, Austria or Malta can instead be paid here and be used
to the benefit of Spain and its people.'
The speaker was referring to the fact that countries that choose
to legalise, regulate and
tax online gambling benefit
greatly from encouraging online gambling operators to operate
within their borders, as they can then monitor the industry as
well as benefit greatly from the millions of taxable euros.
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