Spain’s Ombudsman Urges Ban on Gambling Advertising

Just a few days ago, the Spanish press revealed that the country’s Acting Ombudsman, Francisco Fernández Marugán, wants to completely ban all forms of ment on gambling products and services.

More Details on this Documentation

Ombudsman wants to push the government to use their power and put complete censorship on gambling ads…

…as a result, he has introduced official documentation to state officials.

Besides recommending a total ban on gambling advertising, he also wants to exclude lottery ment from this legislation.

The state-run SELAE and ONCE lottery and betting pool would still be able to .

Last Year’s Plans

As a reminder, let’s not forget that in October 2018, Spanish Minister of Finance, María Jesús Montero, announced to the public that the government was having serious plans about restricting gambling advertising…

…just like they did with the advertising of tobacco products.

The plan was to prohibit gambling ads on all types of media, like television, radio, internet, during times of the day when underage individuals might be watching or listening.

He further commented that restrictions would be ok if a total ban isn’t imposed on operators, and he justified the idea of a blanket ban by claiming that the right of a business to was not enshrined in Spanish law.

Marugán further argued that gambling was “a public health issue that requires a regulatory framework with imperative legal norms.”

Scandal in Spanish Lottery

The Spanish lottery was recently put on the spot because a 15-year-old boy from Barcelona named, Cosmin Rotariu, won a €200,000 jackpot in the latest El Niño lottery draw.

The law states that lottery players should be 18 or older to participate and although the child’s father, Valeriu, said that he gave him permission to buy a €20 lottery ticket…

…according to the law, even the vendor can get in trouble for allowing him to purchase the ticket.

Spanish TV broadcasters have started to remove gambling ads in order to protect the most vulnerable ones from potential harm, but the government on the other hand still doesn’t want to ban lottery ads.

Spain’s Online Gambling Growth Slowed in 2018

During the Q4 of 2018, the growth of the Spanish online gambling marked a surprising slow down.

The nation’s regulatory body released a statement saying that online operators had a revenue of €189.5 million during the last three months of 2018.

It was a 4.2% rise comparing to the numbers from Q3…

…as well as the 10.7% rise in comparison to the same period during 2017.

Sports betting brought an amazing €100 million in revenue during Q4, but this form of gambling saw just a 2.3% growth, while it had negative year-on-year growth of 2.1%.

When it comes to online casino revenue, in Q4 it went up to a €64.8 million, which is a 6.4% growth comparing to the revenue in Q3.

Source:

“Spain’s ombudsman urges total ban on gambling advertising”, Steven Stradbrooke, calvinayre.com, May 20, 2019.