Spain Stalls Regulation

As we previously reported, Spain was getting closer to finally having some regulation to their online casinos, unfortunately the progress remains stalled. There are definitely benefits to legalization and regulation of the online casino industry, mostly the tax benefits and other protection of players that are required by the European Union. Unlike Finland, Spain does not have a monopoly online casino currently operating so the issue is that they just have not decided what they want to do with the industry. The Spain government said that they want to act as a guide to the other countries of the European Union. The down side of their stalling the process is that it will cost them a large loss of Euros from lost taxes.

In the current economic climate government officials all over the world are looking for ways to generate revenue for their government and online casinos seem to be a very easy way to tax an industry that is already a multi billion dollar a year business. In an estimation calculated by the Spanish Association of Internet Bettors Spain lost an estimated 20 million Euro in potential tax benefits, calculated at a ten percent rate. This calculation was reached because online casinos in their sector had revenue of over 200 million Euros. If they decided on a way to regulate online casinos in Spain they would be able to help their country. The current rate that the online casinos and internet gambling websites are taxed in the United Kingdom is 15 percent tax.

In Madrid all of the current online gaming laws would be more competitive if they went with a 10 percent online casino tax. The legislation may take more than a year to commence and come to a conclusion. In March of 2009 there will be a conference in Madrid that will set the tone for the Spanish online casino legislation decisions. A representative for Aedapi said, "A regulation must be performed, so, instead of paying in the UK, Austria or Malta, taxes are paid in Spain. Aedapi members are claiming to pay those taxes here." The taxes that operators of online casinos are paid in the country of origin not the country in which the player bets from. Hopefully there will be a swift resolution to this Spanish legislation issue by the end of the year.