Spain’s seventeen autonomous communities have agreed to establish a cooperative framework on the management and data sharing of their individual gambling self-exclusion networks.
The principles of a cooperative framework were agreed upon at a meeting of Spain’s ‘Gambling Policy Council’, chaired by DGOJ Secretary-General, Mikel Arana.
To date, the majority of Spain’s autonomous communities have individually maintained their player gambling self-exclusion databases, utilising the DGOJ’s RGIAJ registry system.
Operating since 2015, the RGIAJ system was designed to feedback player self-exclusion data to autonomous community public health networks – providing the DGOJ with little oversight measuring Spain’s problem gambling disorders.
The agreement struck between the autonomous governments will allow Spain’s Consumer Affairs Ministry to launch two new projects, supporting the government’s ongoing reform of the nation’s federal gambling laws.
The Consumer Affairs ministry is expected to announce its new Royal Decree on the development of new ‘safer gambling environments’ for retail and online gambling businesses.
In addition, serving as the government’s federal agency on gambling laws, the Consumer Affairs Ministry will secure further accountability ‘for the granting of subsidies in order to carry out research activities related to the prevention of gambling disorders.’
The overhaul of RGIAJ registry has been supported by the autonomous cities of Ceuta and Melilla, as the Spanish online gambling hubs launch a ‘universal system’ for player self-exclusion which its licensees must comply with.
The DGOJ continues its focus on harmonising Spain’s fragmented gambling laws by promoting collaboration between autonomous communities.
2021 saw the DGOJ initiate a ‘new technical unit’ with standardisation body UNE to identify and establish unified gambling standards and harmonised policies across Spain’s diverse communities.