Spain

Spain regulates online gambling at national level under Ley 13/2011, de 27 de mayo, de regulación del juego. The Dirección General de Ordenación del Juego (DGOJ) is the regulator. It sits within the Ministry of Social Rights, Consumer Affairs and Agenda 2030 and is responsible for regulating, authorising, supervising, controlling and, where appropriate, sanctioning state-level gambling.

Spain is one of Europe's more restrictive markets for marketing. Royal Decree 958/2020 governs commercial communications, and in 2026 the government began reforming the 2011 law itself, with influencers, acquisition promotions and organic search advertising on the agenda.

Regulator and licensing

Spain uses a two-tier licence model:

• General licences. Under Article 10 of Ley 13/2011, anyone wanting to run non-occasional gambling needs a general licence for each modality defined in Article 3(c) to (f). Those modalities are:

  • betting (apuestas);
  • raffles (rifas);
  • contests (concursos);
  • "other games" (otros juegos), such as poker or roulette.

  General licences are granted through calls for applications. The bases may not limit the number of licences unless that is justified on public-interest, child-protection or addiction-prevention grounds.

• Singular licences. Under Article 11, each game type within a general licence needs its own singular licence. A singular licence lasts at least one and at most five years and can be renewed. Losing the general licence means losing the singular licences attached to it.

Key rules for affiliates

Royal Decree 958/2020 on commercial communications for gambling covers operators and, under Article 2, anyone who distributes gambling advertising, explicitly "incluidos afiliados, páginas web y redes sociales". The main points for affiliates are:

• Operator liability. Under Article 37, operators are responsible for compliance with the Title I advertising rules when communications are distributed on their behalf. They must take the measures needed to make sure the entities advertising for them comply.

• Affiliate liability. Those entities are separately responsible for their own obligations under Article 7.3 and 7.4 of Ley 13/2011, and for infringements arising from them.

• Broadcast window. On audiovisual services, gambling operators' commercial communications may only be broadcast between 01:00 and 05:00, with specific exceptions set out in Articles 19 to 22.

• Partially annulled provisions. The Supreme Court annulled parts of the decree in judgments including one of 2 April 2024. The annulled provisions are:

  • Article 13.1 and 13.3, on promotional activities;
  • Article 15, which banned public figures from commercial communications;
  • Article 23.1, on information society services;
  • Article 25.3, on video-sharing platforms;
  • Article 26.2 and 26.3, on social networks.

  Article 13.2 remains in force. It bans promotions aimed specifically at self-excluded or prohibited persons and at customers identified as showing risky gambling behaviour. The ban on commercial communications sent by post, in Article 17, also still applies.

Promoting unlicensed gambling is itself a sanctionable offence. On 29 April 2026 the DGOJ published a sanction against the company behind the 'Zona Gemelos' content creators. The DGOJ described the activity as online gambling affiliate marketing, including links to unauthorised operators and commercial communications on Instagram, Kick, X and Discord. The fine was €10,000 for a serious infringement under Ley 13/2011. The company paid €6,000 after taking down the content and accepting the two available reductions.

Recent changes

• Q1 2026 sanctions. The same DGOJ release reported final sanctions against nine companies in the first quarter of 2026, totalling €10,290,500. Two unlicensed foreign operators were each fined €5,000,000 and barred for two years. Since July 2021 the ministry has published 221 sanctions worth more than €506 million.

• 18 May 2026: reform of Ley 13/2011. The DGOJ opened a public consultation on amending the law. The consultation ran until 22 June 2026 and covered three advertising topics:

  • celebrities and influencers in gambling advertising;
  • customer-acquisition promotions;
  • organic advertising in search engines, with the aim that operator ads appear only when searches relate directly to betting.

  The ministry also said gambling advertising will have to carry risk warnings modelled on tobacco packaging.

• 26 May 2026: prediction markets. The DGOJ opened sanction proceedings against Polymarket and Kalshi for operating in Spain without a licence and ordered their websites blocked as a precautionary measure. It said prediction markets are gambling when users stake on uncertain future outcomes, so they need a specific licence.

• 25 June 2026: joint deposit limits. Royal Decree 520/2026 was published, after Council of Ministers approval on 23 June. It creates deposit limits per person across all operators, which the DGOJ will manage:

  • Default limits: €700 a day, €1,750 a week and €3,300 over four weeks.
  • Changes by players: players can raise or remove the limits through a specific procedure.
  • Timing: according to the BOE, the decree enters into force on 25 March 2027, with some provisions applying earlier.
  • Testing: the DGOJ must give operators a test version of the system six months before it goes live.

• 21 July 2026: industry meetings. After more than 50 submissions, the DGOJ began meetings with industry bodies, starting with Jdigital, before drafting the bill. It said the process would continue through September and the draft text would then go to public consultation.