Spain is delaying the start of its iGaming market for a few more days with the plan to still hand out licences this week. eGR is reporting that sources in Spain told them the regulatory body (DGOJ) will hand out licences on June 1 before waiting until June 5 so that approved operators have a five day period to register a technical contact with them. The source added that everyone awarded a licence would be given a “dossier of technical requirements and instructions” which needed to be completed to proceed in the market. After all, there is nothing like a bit of homework. Unfortunately, the teachers are anticipating the homework being handed in late. So late in fact that the source thinks, “a few [operators] are not going to be ready – possibly for up to a month”.
This wouldn’t be surprising to anyone let alone the source given by eGR, as they added: “Spain will be different to [Schleswig-Holstein] where licences are being handed out to small numbers of operators at a time, so this was always a possibility.”
The latest comes after a number of operators saved up all their pocket money to pay back taxes to the Spanish government and will be understandably slightly perturbed at having to wait even longer. What the delay will mean is that the market is as fair as possible and that a level playing field will be provided for all those applying. The tax bills themselves are completely separate to the licensing procedure but at the same time refusals could be sought by the tax authority if companies refuse to pay up.
