Around 50 groups expect to obtain gaming license before change of government

According to sources of the sector, around fifty companies have presented, or have planned to present in short, the license application to operate before the National Registry of Licenses, a responsibility of the Ministry of Economy. The deadline for the presentation concludes December 14th and, although there are six months to solve the request, the main operators expect to have an answer around December 20, it means, before the new government takes office.

Who are interested in participating in the sector? Together with classic online gaming operators (such as Bwin, Betfair or 888.com) there are the owners of traditional casinos, the two big gambling groups in Spain (Codere and Cirsa) and also media and TV groups, that must count with a license in order to keep on having their current contests by SMS and programs in the style of call tv. In fact, groups such as Antena 3 have already formed an
Ad hoc society whose exclusive social aim is the operation and commercialization of games.

The process to obtain a license demands a complex paperwork (operational plans, business and technical plans, models of contract, policies of data protection and money laundering, agreements with providers), which has led to offices like Deloitte to organize teams created deliberately for this purpose. The financial demands are also high: general licenses (for wagers, raffles and other types of games like roulette or poker) demand the deposit of a guarantee of 2 million euros.