Spain’s online gambling market continues to struggle, as figures from the country’s gaming regulator showed gross gaming revenue of €51.6m in the three months ending Sept. 30. That’s down from the €55.4m the Dirección General de Ordenación del Juego (DGOJ) reported in Q2, which was itself down from Q1’s €61m, leaving the Q3 tally down 20% in just six months.
The decline is all the more frustrating considering that the total amount wagered has suffered a far less significant decline, with Q3’s €1.3b not far off Q1’s €1.4b. The number of registered players also increased 3.4%. Critics have cited the country’s punitive 25% tax on gross gaming revenue, delays in authorizing online slots and limited poker liquidity as making Spanish-licensed operators’ product uncompetitive compared to that of black market operators.
Sports betting once again dominated the sector, claiming 47% of the gross gaming revenue pie. Poker was bridesmaid once again at 30%, with casino at 16% and bingo at 4%. Some help may be on the way via the long awaited introduction of slots and exchange betting, which is expected sometime early next year, although no specific date has been offered as yet. In October, the DGOJ issued amendments to its sports betting regulations that would free operators to offer their own catalogue of betting events and markets rather than adhere to the DGOJ-authored catalogue (but the operators are still barred from offering illegal events).
Spain’s gambling woes aren’t confined to the online realm. A study funded by Spanish gaming operator Codere says the country’s brick-and-mortar casino business has seen turnover fall from €2.55b in 2007 to just €1.49b in 2012. Another study by the European Casino Association (ECA) attributed the Spanish decline to its “economic situation, high [tax] rates, the smoking ban and online gambling.” Take that last factor with a grain of salt, as ECA chairman Ron Goudsmit is the source of Sheldon Adelson’s anecdotal claim that online gambling cannibalizes brick-and-mortar casino gambling revenue – a view that is not shared by most other brick-and-mortar casino operators.
