As indicated in our previous entry in this blog, the Spanish Government has presented today the new Draft Royal Decree on Gambling Advertising in a press conference where the main measures contained on the said draft have been announced. The Spanish Ministry of Consumer Protection Affairs (Mr. Alberto Garzón) has announced that the Draft Royal Decree on Gambling Advertising will be released on Monday.

After that publication, the so called informative process will start and therefore, all interested parties would be entitle to file comments to the proposed wording.

From the information released today, the main measures contained in the Draft Royal Decree are:

• Broadcasting timeframe: As announced, the general rule for the broadcasting of online gambling advertisements in radio, TV, online platforms such as YouTube and video on demand platforms will be limited to a more restricted time band (from 1am to 5am). This will affect Casino games such as slots, back jack, roulette, baccarat and poker.
• As an exception, advertising of certain online gambling activities (most likely, only sport betting) will be permitted during sports events broadcast after 8 pm. These will be however subject to very serious restrictions such as the prohibition to include messages inviting to immediate betting such as “bet now”, or related to information about specific bets.
• Sponsorships will be permitted always that is limited to including the name and/or trademark of the licensed operator in the official T-Shirts. However, the following restrictions will apply: (i) commercialization of small sizes t- shirts will be banned , and (ii) it will not be permitted to name an stadium or a sport team with the name of a gambling operator.
• It will be banned to use the trademark of a gambling operator for any product or service addressed to minors.
• Advertising of bonuses making reference to an economic amount (i.e. first deposit, loyalty bonuses) will be forbidden. Furthermore the offering of bonuses will be limited to a maximum amount of €100.
• Tipsters will be obliged to publish the real results of their betting activities. Online gambling operators will be only allowed to enter into an agreement with a tipster if he or she has made public those results.
• Free games: the RNG of free games shall be the same used for real money games. The idea is to avoid creating the impression of a more friendly environment, that will lead afterwards the players to participate in real money games with a different RGN. It is not clear whether a non-licensed operator would be entitled to offer free games, as those games can be understood as an advertising tool.
• Celebrities: it will not be possible to use celebrity and famous persons (including youtoubers, sportsmen) in these campaigns. There is no specific criteria to determine who should be considered as “celebrity ”, but the idea is to have a restrictive approach and in case of conflict it will be the DGOJ the one deciding. Apparently radio speakers during the retransmission of a match would not be considered as celebrities.

The Spanish Government has explained that, regardless of the pressure received from some sectors of the population to restrict even more the advertising of these activities, they consider that the approach adopted is adequate for the purposes of protecting the Spanish population. The reason for this is that this document will permit a well balanced framework and that other solutions such as the Italian model are detrimental, as do not permit consumers to differentiate between legal gambling offer and the so called black market.

We will keep informing on the next steps and the publication of the Draft Royal Decree on Gambling Advertising on Monday.