Lawmakers in Spain are in the process of introducing stricter protective measures to dissuade adolescents from pursuing gambling.
Spain’s Ministry of Health is hastily working on a report highlighting the scope of underaged groups participating in gambling.
The urgency comes from the Socialist Parliamentary Group, a coalition government led by PM Pedro Sánchez, imposing stricter measures before a report was finalized. It is the latest of many countries joining Europe’s effort to tackle underage gambling addiction.
The proposed measures aim to introduce stricter ID checks to online operators and land-based venues. It will necessitate ID verification from slot machines and other gambling-related devices.
It will ensure anyone under Spain’s legal age for gambling, 18, will be denied access and avoid exposure to any risks involved with gambling.
Furthermore, the proposal seeks to reduce the online reach of gambling games. It urges players in the gambling market to use games with less addictive mechanics and deny access to underage users over the internet.
The government’s actions are based on a study published in 2022, which found that 21.5% of children aged 14-18 had gambled online or in person. More recently, this was in light of gambling market growth in Spain’s second quarter of 2024.
The measure has been accepted and is currently under review by the Joint Commission for the Study of Addiction Problems. When writing this article, it had yet to reach the floor vote.
The proposals must then receive a majority vote in the Congress of Deputies before progressing to the Senate for final approval.
For context, operators in Spain’s gambling ecosystem must conduct identity checks to abide by broader KYC and AML mandates.
In other news, Blackstone is set to list CIRSA SA in Bolsa Madrid to disrupt Spain’s gambling market.
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