Spain is no exception to the rest of world: Spaniards love gambling, and such an activity fuels a very lucrative industry. According to the Spanish Gambling Commission (Comisión Nacional del Juego),886 almost €29 billion was spent in Spain in connection with gambling or betting activities in 2006. And during that year, the average Spanish citizen spent more than €200 for gambling or betting purposes.
Nevertheless, the traditional Spanish gambling market has been shocked by the emergence of online casinos and betting Web sites. The number of new players does not stop growing year after year; they have created a dynamic subset within a traditionally “quiet” gambling sector. Unfortunately, the rise of these new kinds of gambling and betting activities has not been accompanied with a modernization of Spanish law. Thus, numerous legal problems have arisen, and Spanish gambling law has not offered workable solutions.
This chapter addresses this legal scenario by provided a brief study of the most relevant aspects of Spanish gambling law, applying such law to Internet gambling, identifying key legal issues that remain open and examining the legal perspectives of Internet gambling in Spain.