The private gaming sector ask Madrid Council to allow advertising

They have claimed so to the Council of Economy and Finance in a recent meeting. The associations believe that the strong restrictions to the sector have no sense, while online gaming, in spite of being illegal, spend millions of euros in aggressive advertising campaigns in all the mediums.

Besides, they criticized that those advertising restrictions are justified by social aims of protection to underaged or people with gambling problems, because the Association of Rehabilitated Players has constantly alerted that danger is bigger for those collectives in online gaming.

They also explained that private gaming of Madrid Council is the one that has more employments in the region, 2,500 direct and many indirect employments, in spite of the crisis. Last year, 300 million euros entered for the arcas of the Council, despite its benefits fell more than 10 %.

Despite this important work and tax effort, according to their report, private games can barely be advertised while Internet gaming, that neither pays taxes nor generates even one employment in Spain, advertises in the best media spaces, as well as in coveted supports such as football T-shirts from first-league teams, among them, Real Madrid.

Public games have no advertising restriction either, both pools and national lotteries or even ONCE, advertise with no limitation. Before this clear discrimination, Aseju and Omega considerated that, in order to solve the current situation, that is suffocating bingo businessmen, it would be necessary to make a wider interpretation of the additional second disposition of the Betting Rules, that regulate gaming in Madrid Council.

Aseju and Omega also think these restrictions contradict the economic principles of Madrid Council in favour of economic liberalism. Specially with a sector that supports an extremely high tax (del 61.11%), and remains condemned to advertising ostracism.

"Facing such high taxes makes more difficult to keep the gambling venues open and, this way, guarantee the employment, which is one of the main aims of the sector,”affirmed ASEJU president, José Luis de Pedro Videgaín.  Having such high taxation, without being able to advertise the activity -legal and regulated- has become an impossible task for the bingo sector.

Finally, they said that the situation is even more outrageous if they consider that illegal Internet gaming is expanding in Spain with absolute impunity, while the administrations that should regulate they turn a blind eye.