Even though the Spanish provisions reserve the offering of the state national lottery for certain National operators (the Organización Nacional de Ciegos Españoles “ONCE” and Sociedad Estatal Loterías y Apuestas del Estado “SELAE”), it is also regulated that any natural or legal person other than ONCE or SELAE can participate in the marketing of lottery games, as long as they are specifically authorized by these operators.

In recent years there has been an increase in the number of websites and applications directly managed by authorized lottery gaming operators, or authorized by them, that offer the possibility of buying lottery tickets and facilitate access to lottery games. The Spanish gambling authority, the General Directorate for Gambling Affairs (“DGOJ”), wonder if this kind of activity may involve singularities that require regulatory intervention to ensure that the interests of participants and vulnerable groups are properly protected.

The Spanish regulator considers that the commercialization of lottery games requires guarantees by those external operators and pretends to establish a regulatory framework to ensure a responsible intervention of any gambling operator and to preserve the State from fraud and criminality, as well as to avoid compulsive or pathological consumer behaviour.

For those purposes, the DGOJ has launched a public consultation (information available here), which any interested citizen, organization or association can contribute with their views on this subject until 21 September 2022. Contributions can be sent via this email: dgoj.sgregulacion@ordenacionjuego.gob.es.

We will keep you informed on any further developments on this blog.