Spanish payment controls are making it harder for offshore casinos to operate

Spain's gambling regulator has ramped up enforcement against foreign gambling websites, citing financial control measures as compliance with local law. In late 2025, 32 operators were fined more than €33 million, bringing total fines for the year to nearly €111 million. This points to a more aggressive approach to payment structures and illegal gambling. This article analyzes the impact of these measures on offshore operators, Spanish market players, and service provider interventions. Payment processing measures are constraining the ability to access and control funds. This, of course, impacts users' ability to partake in cross-border gambling.

Spain's gambling regulators are seeking to enforce gambling laws more aggressively by implementing more robust financial interdictions for Spanish gamblers playing at foreign casinos. The Directorate General for the Regulation of Gambling (DGOJ) is using a combination of administrative penalties, technical blocking, and payment processor interventions as enforcement measures. 

Domain blocking is the most publicized enforcement action, but financial interdiction is emerging as a primary enforcement tool. These enforcement actions are designed in part to direct gambling activities away from unlicensed casino operators and to protect potentially problem gamblers. The enforcement actions are working, as gambling operators are experiencing increased delays in payment processor transactions, and users are confronted with more complicated payment processing options. 

Stricter regulations impacting international gambling

Spain’s gambling regulators apply Law 13/2011 to foreign gambling operators. The law means that to provide gambling services to Spanish customers, a company must obtain a Spanish license. In 2025, for the first time, DGOJ imposed penalties on 32 operators, with total fines exceeding €33 million. Of the 32, 6 were foreign operators who received the maximum fine and had their websites confiscated for unlicensed gambling. These actions are examples of how Spain's regulators are utilizing a combination of traditional compliance checks and financial surveillance (DGOJ 2025 annual report).

In Spanish gambling terminology, codigos casino sin deposito stands out from the rest; it refers to bonus codes that allow users to play without making a deposit. The owners of these sites use unlicensed offers as bait to lure Spanish players into gambling. In relation to the Spanish regulations, the use of these offers is often a sign of promotional tool regulation in relation to marketing and the protection of consumers.

As revealed in the regulation reports issued in April of 2023, there was a total of over 111 million euros of fines from regulation from the year of 2022. These figures are indicative of the regulation that has been carried out towards both licensed and unlicensed gambling operators.

Payment providers face new compliance requirements

In relation to the Financial System of Spain, there has been an increase in the control of transactions relating to gambling. In relation to payments and provision of services, there are restrictions and prohibitions on payments to players and gambling operators that are not on the approved or licensed lists. These restrictions come from the control of credit cards, electronic money, and bank transactions.

Anti-money laundering and consumer protection laws allow for the blocking of transactions directed toward non-licensed operators. Financial service providers that do not comply can face a loss of business and damage to their reputation. As a result, many institutions implement their own screening for gambling transactions, perform greater due diligence, and decline payments. From a compliance perspective, losing access to domestic banking systems is the biggest obstacle for offshore banking operators, which creates shortcomings to their ability to take and create deposits.

Spanish financial law compliance also guides the payments industry’s compliance product development. These laws are paired with Spanish Financial law aimed at protecting consumers and ensuring monitored risk and safe transactions.

Offshore casinos struggle with transaction barriers

Spanish payment systems have become more challenging for international operators, who can no longer pay and play in their systems. This financial exclusion from domestic banking systems is a critical obstacle to engaging in illicit gambling. Even licensed operators suffer from a lack of transaction channels in euros, which is a great drawback to their operational profitability and the gambling experience of their customers.

A large number of offshore casinos are adopting different payment systems, such as cryptocurrencies and foreign account systems. These payment methods tend to be more cumbersome, with greater and more unpredictable transaction fees, which are unregulated and create a lack of consumer protection in Spain. This creates a loss of trust and increased operational risk.

Spain's strategy of limiting access to its local financial systems and infrastructure makes it harder for unregulated operators to target Spanish gamblers and reduces money transfer opportunities to unregulated gambling websites that do not comply with local responsible gambling guidelines and requirements.

Players experience limited access to funds

Gamblers using overseas gambling websites that do not have a local gambling license run the risk of having their deposits and withdrawals to and from their gambling accounts blocked. Payments to and bets from their gambling accounts that are considered unauthorized gambling transactions are increasingly being restricted by financial institutions and are subject to additional account verification requirements. All of these actions are taken to ensure a balance between the account holder's wishes and the financial institution's legal obligations.

In Spain's gambling market, the gambling concessionaires are required to use responsible gambling methods and gambling account holder identity verification, and to restrict gambling account holder marketing. This, along with the unregulated websites having significantly less operational flexibility and increased compliance obligations. This creates a safer gambling environment for players using the regulated sites.

Adapting strategies

The increased importance of payment-related restrictions for Spain's gambling market makes it clear that financial transactions are going to be a central aspect of the regulation of gambling in the market going forward. This leaves offshore operators with the option of either obtaining a legal gambling license in Spain and having to implement regulated payment systems or continuing to operate with restricted access to the Spanish financial system.

It is anticipated that regulators will continue to exert pressure on both operators and financial intermediaries to comply with regulations and ensure consumer protection. Given the rapid evolution of the transactional landscape, participants in the market must respond to these developments.

Data supporting enforcement and trends in policy suggest that as Spain attempts to balance the protection of consumers and the integrity of the market, further adaptations will occur. Payment control innovations will influence the geography and methods of engagement that participants will adopt regarding online gambling in the near future.