The Consumer Ministry imposes 140 million in fines on online gaming operators.

Throughout 2024, the Ministry of Social Rights and Consumer Affairs has imposed more than €140 million in fines for serious or very serious violations of administrative regulations on 41 operators in the online betting and gambling sector in Spain. In the second half of 2024 alone, the total fines amounted to €77.4 million, according to data obtained by La Vanguardia .

The bulk of the sanctions, 14 of the 26 issued by the Directorate General for the Regulation of Gambling (DGOJ), which detects these operations, were imposed for very serious violations. They affected foreign online gambling operators operating without a license in Spain. They account for the majority of the amounts claimed by the ministry, a total of €75 million.

In total, 41 companies have been penalized in 2024, compared to 47 companies the previous year.

All of the operators found to be operating without a license have been fined five million euros each, except for one, which was fined 10 million euros, according to the ministry. Along with the fine, this procedure entails the disqualification of the operators for a period of two years, in accordance with the sanctions established in the Gambling Regulation Law (LRJ) for this type of violation.

These are the cases of the companies Wot NV, Magicwin games tech LTD, Winbet NV, Spicyjactpos games tech LTS, Lama tech limitation, Chestoption limited liability company, Pennytech holding BV, Group gaem BV, Mibs NV, Fgs software solutions SRL, Investan NV, Tinietech holding BV, Adonio NV and Techsolutions group NV

The Directorate General has also firmly sanctioned 12 other operators in the online betting and gambling sector for serious violations during the second half of 2024. The resolutions considered "serious" are aimed at operators who do operate with a license but are found to be guilty of some type of violation classified as unauthorized advertising.

According to the records of the Directorate General for the Regulation of Gambling, the companies sanctioned are Millonapp SL, Casumo Spain PLC, Bingosoft PLC, Wagerfair SA, Media 24, Juegos de azar y servicios SL, Conespa solutions, TSG interactive PLC, Whg Spain PLC, Fpoocl SA, and 888 online games España SA. In these cases, the total fines of 12 totaled €2.4 million.

As a result of the latest amendment to the Gambling Regulation Act, which establishes that serious and very serious administrative violations will be published on the Gambling Directorate's website, the Ministry has published the sanctioning resolutions that have become final since July 2021. Since then, the number of published sanctions has risen to 180. The total amount of the fines has reached more than €475 million.

Specifically, the year with the most fines was 2022, when 73 sanctions were imposed for a total amount of €120 million. The next highest number of sanctions was 2023, when 47 operators were fined. In terms of total fines, 2023 is the year in which the fines total more than €152 million.