Gambling halls outside the casino
A separate area of the Spanish gambling industry is the creation of small halls for slot machines. Similar "establishments" are found in the cities of the country in a respectable number. Their basic audience is pensioners. The main feature is a loyal pricing policy. Betting limits range from a few cents to EUR 2. The maximum winning amount is EUR 500.
An exception is electronic roulettes. Here, the cost of one launch of the device can reach 50 euros, amount of payments - up to several thousand, respectively.
Poker
A special segment of the Spanish gambling industry. Poker rooms and poker clubs are present in almost all major and resort cities of the country.
Spain regularly organizes professional tournaments:
- European Poker Tour - prestigious European level card competition. One of the rounds of this event is held annually at the elite Casino Barcelona. Buy-by cost (entrance ticket to the game) reaches several hundred EUR. It should be noted, it was Barcelona that became the venue for the first round of the presented competition in 2004 year and the 100th anniversary stage. The Catalan capital also hosts other elite events - the World Poker Tour.
- World Poker Tour - a world poker tournament with professional players. First organized in 2002 year. Meetings are held in various cities of the USA and European countries, including Spain. IN 2016 Main Event series competitions were held alternately in three casinos: Casino Barcelona, Gran Casino Madrid и Solverde Casino Espinho.
- Estrellas Poker Tour - Spanish Poker Series. Her tours take turns in Barcelona, Madrid, Valencia and Marbella.
- Mega Poker Series Madrid, Super Stack Valencia, CNP Malaga - Madrid Local Poker Series, Valencia, Malaga, respectively.
Spanish poker players
Many professional poker players today are from Spain. Famous members of the prestigious PokerStar team:
- Juan Manuel Pastor (Juan Manuel Pastor) - successful player, came to the gambling industry from the media industry.
- Leo Margets (Leo Margets), won the authority of one of the most skillful women, professional poker players.
- Rafael Nadal (Rafael Nadal) - world famous tennis player, "Face of the brand", collaborated with PokerStar for three years. You can hardly call him a professional, but he gained considerable experience and became a participant in several non-standard events: charity duel against Ronaldo, heads-up fight with Vanessa Slabst (Vanessa herself) during EPT 2014
Andoni Larrabe reached a high level (Andoni Larrabe) and Adrian Matteo Diaz (Adrian Mateo Diaz), who became finalists of the prestigious WSOP Main Event.
Fernando Pons has a reputation as one of the best amateur players on the international stage. By taking part in WSOP Las Vegas, a worker from Mallorca managed to join the "November Nine 2016". Today they predict the glory of "the second Chris Moneymaker".
But many professional poker players choose to live and play abroad.. Spain stands out for its exceptional level of taxation compared to EU countries.
Gambling market in Spain today
Today about 60% gambling industry is occupied by casinos, order 40% accounted for by community lotteries and sports. In general, the structure of the country's gambling business unites six sectors:
- land-based casinos are the most significant and extensive market segment. Work organized in Spain 48 legal gambling establishments, operating in 34 cities of the country.
- slot machines, hosted outside of official casinos. This sector takes over 35% market share. The main suppliers of equipment, implementing, setting, maintenance of devices, are LAE and ONCE.
- online entertainment. This direction is distinguished by its rapid development, annual increase in turnover.
- lottery. This part of the Spanish market is one of the largest in the world and is distinguished by the highest level of expenses per resident in comparison with the indicators of other countries.. There is a constant growth trend in this segment.
- sweepstakes. The turnover in this direction looks insignificant compared to the level of development in other EU states.
- bingo. Least profitable segment of the gambling industry.
Photo source: News of Gambling
Spain Thematic Conferences
Spain takes an active part in the development of the European gambling market. Thematic conferences and forums are often held here., collecting a huge number of visitors.
The most significant event of this format is the specialized annual exhibition FER Interazar. Its main audience is manufacturers, distributors of gambling equipment. Participation in the exposition allows you to present novelties of slot machines, improved software, to present equipment and security systems for land-based casinos. Duration of the event - 3 days. The usual time is mid-March. Average attendance - over 15 thousand. man.
A bright event 2016 of the year for Spain was the holding of the World Executive Summit Gaming (WGES) in Barcelona. An event of this format brings together leading representatives of the international market. Such companies became participants of the conference, как European Casino Association (ECA), Ladbrokes, Playtech, Betsson, Camp, Olympic Entertainment Group, other operators and regulators of the gambling market.
Local events are local forums of the Andalusia Gaming Conference format (Andalusian Gambling Conference).
Regulation of online gambling in Spain
Spain finally confirmed the status of a large European state with a self-sufficient gambling market in 2011 year, forming a government agency, in charge of regulating activities in the gambling industry - General Directorate for Gambling Regulation (Directorate General for the Regulation of Gambling - исп., Directorate General for the Regulation of Gambling — англ.). Educated under the Ministry of Finance, The authority is subordinate to the Spanish State Treasury. Despite the "youth", Directorate General for the Regulation of Gambling (DGOJ) - the main regulator of the state gambling industry.
The basic functions of the department are:
- development of regulations, aimed at regulating gambling, formation of requirements for their functional, technical specifications;
- accepting applications for registration of admission to carry out activities in the gambling business;
- issuance of licenses for the provision of any services, related to gambling: organization, holding lotteries, sports betting, casino creation, other.
- monitoring the quality of work of establishments, control over the compliance of their activities with legislative provisions. In case of non-fulfillment of their requirements, the Commission has the right to impose penalties, up to the revocation of permits.
Today, Spain provides for the issuance of three types of licenses:
- main with a validity period 10 years;
- single, giving the right to carry out activities in the gambling business for 1-5 years.
- short term temporary permits.
There are no issuance limits for the number of licenses. Registration of gambling sites on the local .es domain is a prerequisite.. List of operators, operating under a license from the Commission, presented on the official online resource of the department.
Protecting the interests of gambling companies, business development and equalization, transparent conditions for maintaining a competitive environment - tasks, assigned to the Spanish Casino Association. The organization, established in 1978 year, today enters 32 gambling establishments. The association is a member of the European Casino Association (ECA).
Photo source: News of Gambling
