SPAIN Law and Practice Contributed by: Alla Serebrianskaia, Marta de Francisco, Sara Lao and Laura Llorca, Asensi Abogados
4.4 Availability of Licences There have been three public calls for general licenc- es for online gambling at the federal level since the approval in 2011 of the Spanish Gambling Act: in 2011, 2014 and 2017. None of the three public tenders limited the number of operators that could be granted a licence, nor the number of licences to be granted. In other words, all those operators that met the require- ments established within the tender obtained the licence. The Spanish regulation permits any interested party to request a new call for gambling licences at least 18 months after the previous call. The processes for regional land-based licences are approved by each autonomous region and, depend- ing on the type of licence and region, there can be limits on the number of licences available (for exam- ple, licences for betting shops in the Canary Islands) or the licences can be limited to one and subject to a public tender process (as is the case, for example, for licences for land-based casinos). 4.5 Duration of Licences Online Gambling at Federal Level General licences are valid for ten years, extendable by another ten. Single licences have a minimum duration of one year and a maximum duration of five, depend- ing on the type of gambling product, and these are also extendable by successive periods of the same duration. The expiry of the general licence that the single licence is linked to implies the expiry of the single licence as well. Regional Level The duration of licences depends on each region and type of licence. Customarily, licences are valid for ten Although there are differences between the applica- tion requirements for land-based operators (with slight differences among the regions) and online operators subject to the Gambling Act, the requirements are always divided into three sections to prove legal, eco- nomic and technical solvency. years, extendable by another ten. 4.6 Application Requirements
ments and conditions vary depending on the region and type of licence that an entity is interested in apply- ing for. 4.3 Types of Licences Federal Level At a federal level, the available licences are classified as follows: • general licence for betting, which covers the fol- lowing single licences: (a) pools on sports betting; (b) pools on horse betting; (c) fixed-odds sports betting; (d) fixed-odds horse betting; (e) other fixed-odds betting; and (f) exchange betting; • general licence for contests, which also covers a single licence for contests; and • general licence for other games, which covers the following single licences: (a) poker; (b) blackjack; For example, an entity that wishes to commercial- ise bingo, baccarat and poker will need one general licence (other games) and three single licences (bingo, baccarat and poker). In other words, general licences per se are not valid to offer games; to do so, the entity will also need to obtain a single licence for each type of game within its category. General licences can only be obtained through a public tender process announced by the DGOJ. Entities can apply for single licences together with the general licence or at any other time, provided that they have already been granted and still hold the relevant general licence. Regional Level Each region has competence to establish its own licences and its own licensing procedure and regime. (c) bingo; (d) slots; (e) roulette; (f) baccarat; and (g) complementary games.
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