European revolution in Spanish style: soon a meeting between Spain, Italy and France
A meeting between the regulators of the gaming field in Spain, France and Italy. According to what GiocoNews.it learns from institutional sources, an international briefing dedicated to gaming will be held in mid-June, in Madrid, and it will gather Enrique Alejo, the new Spanish person in charge for the field, Jean François Vilotte, president of the Arjel, and Raffaele Ferrara, “our” general manager of AAMS. There would be nothing to be surprised in the news of the meeting from the point of view of international relationships and following the logic of an international cooperation, as pressed by the European Commission over and over again. But, besides being a good example for the other Member States, the summit dedicated to gaming market that the three European countries are preparing, looks like a much more interesting date. For example, we must look at the rule that Spain has just written – and that now they are putting into effect - to understand. Is not coincidence that Gioco News dedicated a report about the Spanish situation in the May issue of the paper magazine that we are delivering during these days (and that is available, as usual, even in the digital free version).
Written by Redazione GiocoNews
The gaming revolution in Europe begins from Spain. If Italy has acted as a forerunner on the regulations survey, also laying the foundations for the cooperation between Member States through the Memorandum of Understanding signed with France, Spain seems destined to mark time of gaming regulation, introducing national legislations on online gambling and, above all, bursting the banks of territoriality in favor of the international liquidity.
The new rule is clear: open door for the gaming coming from other countries to gambling sites with a license 'dot es'. This means that players from other countries can play on Spanish (virtual) tables. Respecting, of course, the rules in force in other States. For an Italian player is inevitably confirmed the prohibition of gambling on foreign sites; therefore, a “dot es” gambling site will still be inaccessible, like a 'dot com' one. Unless we establish a cooperation aimed at sharing the market and, in this sense, the discussion started between Italy and Spain during the past few months would suggest some chances, but it is still too early to guess real opportunities . And it is too early also to know the new Spanish operators of online gaming, after the change imposed by Enrique Alejo, General Director of the “Ordenacion del Juego' (the branch of the Ministry of Economy in charge for the field). The licenses will be assigned by the end of June, and the intention is to analyze very well the requirements to be sure to charge healthy and totally reliable operators. There are nearly 60 requests on the table: too many according to the experts, with the risk that some licenses will remain unrealized. Due to the online race rouse at the end of 2011 with short times imposed by the rule, without permitting at the market the appropriate considerations.
Three general licenses are expected: betting, competitions (including television), and 'other games'. The first and third ones include other single licences, which will be awarded by the operators who will choose the respective channels. Besides the individual kind of bets who are part of the first part, the general license for 'other games' contains poker, bingo and three casino games (roulette, blackjack and baccarat). So the general licenses are translated into a pre-condition necessary to achieve the specific one, without it no one can enter the market until the next tender.
So, a totally changing market and with remarkable potentialities. Especially because of the opening of borders mentioned above. If the sharing of gaming network that presupposes the introduction of an international liquidity may seem complicated into the EU, everything changes thinking a little bit big. Shifting the attention away from the Old Continent and considering the linguistic advantage that Spain has as regards other European countries, which would favourite a lot the international play. A part of the market not yet rated (even if government, in general, had expected an increase of up 50% of the number of online players in comparison with the ones estimated today) but without a doubt an important one, considering all the neo-Latin countries where the online gambling is not yet regulated or not forbidden abroad. Although, we must say that for the '.com” sites the matter is reduced to a mere trade-off between the opportunities of the present market and the “.es' one, studying in depth the issue of taxation.