Mikel Arana, the Director General of the General Directorate for the Regulation of Gambling in Spain (DGOJ), emphasized during a panel discussion that gambling safety represents a structural priority within the Iberian country’s public policies. The head of the regulatory body stressed the importance of placing the player at the center of all decisions related to the design and operation of the betting market.
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During his speech, Arana raised the need to evolve towards gaming environments that comprehensively incorporate various fundamental elements. Among these, he highlighted active risk prevention, the provision of transparent and understandable information for users, and the application of ethical criteria in the use of technologies. According to the director of the DGOJ, these components are essential to ensure the long-term sustainability of the sector.
DGOJ: International Cooperation on Cross-Border Challenges
The head of the Spanish regulatory body also emphasized the crucial importance of cooperation between authorities from different countries. Arana recalled that the online gambling sector operates in an increasingly globalized context, where digital platforms easily transcend national borders.
This reality implies that the risks associated with online gambling also recognize no geographical limits, demanding coordinated and harmonized responses among different international regulators. Cooperation between authorities becomes fundamental to address issues such as underage access, money laundering prevention, identity fraud, and the protection of vulnerable players in a borderless market.
Parliamentary Blockade of Consumer Protection Measures
The week before his intervention in the panel, Arana publicly expressed his concern about the blockade that certain safe gambling measures suffered during the processing of the Customer Service Law. The final text of this regulation was published in the Spanish Official State Gazette on December 27 last year.
Through an opinion column published in the media outlet Diario Público, the director of the DGOJ explained that the law represented a significant advance in defending consumer rights. Furthermore, he considered it a valuable opportunity to strengthen the consolidation of a safer legal gambling system with greater guarantees for users.
Political Parties Prevent Key Protection Provision
As Arana denounced, during the last parliamentary procedure prior to the final approval of the law, three political formations prevented the incorporation of an additional provision that the regulator considered fundamental for consumer protection. The parties Partido Popular, Vox, and Junts voted against including this measure in the final text.
The director of the DGOJ stated that this decision does not harm the Spanish government, but directly harms citizens. The blocked provision would have allowed users to promptly verify if another person had fraudulently used their national identity document to access online gambling platforms. Without this measure, affected individuals can only detect this type of fraud when the corresponding fiscal year concludes, which can mean a delay of several months.
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Special Concern for the Impact on Young Gamblers
Arana expressed particular concern regarding the impact that this parliamentary decision will have on the youngest segments of the population. The head of the regulatory body warned about the risks faced by individuals with limited knowledge of the commercial dynamics of the online gambling sector.
As he explained, many young people are attracted by welcome bonus offers promoted by influencers on platforms like TikTok. These contents promise them the possibility of “playing for free,” a narrative that can be misleading for inexperienced audiences. The director of the DGOJ pointed out that these users may end up trapped in debts impossible to face after compulsively gambling for short periods.
This situation reflects the vulnerability of population segments that lack adequate financial education and are particularly susceptible to aggressive marketing strategies implemented by operators who prioritize acquiring new customers over player protection.
The Blockade Also Harms Legal Operators
Paradoxically, Arana considered that the parliamentary decision to block these measures is also detrimental to the operators themselves who hold legal licenses to operate in Spain. The director of the regulatory body argued that by exclusively prioritizing what he calls “the player experience” to the detriment of stricter verification obligations, progress towards a safer and more sustainable market is renounced.
Specifically, Arana criticized that the obligation for mobile application providers, such as Apple and Google app stores, to verify that they only offer services from companies with valid licenses has not been established. This lack of control allows applications from operators without Spanish licenses to be available for download, facilitating access to unregulated platforms.
The head of the DGOJ described the idea that this more lenient stance truly benefits the regulated sector as “a mirage.” In his opinion, the absence of strict controls at the access points to platforms ultimately generates unfair competition between legal operators, who must comply with multiple regulatory requirements, and illegal operators who offer more attractive conditions precisely because they evade consumer protection rules.
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