Spain Rolls Out 30+ Gambling Rules to Save Young Punters

Spain is tightening the screws on gambling operators with a new royal decree that aims to protect young bettors from the dark side of gambling. The decree spells out more than 30 rules for responsible gaming and covers all 17 regions of Spain, Gambling News reports.

The decree focuses on players between 18 and 25, who are easy marks for shady marketing and gambling ads. But it also ramps up safety measures for other age groups.

For instance, the decree requires users who are flagged as risky to confirm that they know the dangers of gambling. If they don’t do that within 72 hours, their accounts get locked.

The decree also tracks how much money users lose over a certain period to spot risky players.

This applies to customers under 25 who drop more than €200 in three weeks. For players over 25, the cap is €600.

The new rules also ban credit cards for gambling in Spain. Plus, Spanish gambling companies can’t send marketing messages to anyone under 25 who hasn’t gambled before.

Some critics of these new measures, like the Spain’s Digital Gaming Association (Jdigital), say that the rules are too harsh and will make Spain one of the toughest places to gamble in Europe.