CNMV, the National Securities Market Commission of Spain has approved amendments made to the 2011 Gaming Law sanctioned by the Ministry of Consumer Affairs.

The independent agency responsible for Spain’s financial regulation and market securities endorsed new amendments imposed on the 2011 Gaming Law that require safer gambling provisions to be treated as key criteria for market competition.

The business requirement was formally requested by Alberto Garzon, Spain’s Minister of Consumer Affairs, who is charged with spearheading radical changes to the nation’s gambling laws as a federal mandate.

Garzon requested that Gaming Law amendments required CNMV guarantees as “safer gambling amendments do not present unjustified restrictions on market competition”.

The Gaming Law had adopted new amendments for the “overriding reason of protecting public health in the form of the prevention of gambling addiction”.

Garzon’s request was upheld by the CNMV that deemed “empirical evidence derived from the analysis and supervision of the state-level gambling market that more and more players, especially young people, participate in remote gambling activities.”

The CNMV further cited that Spanish gambling required a greater regulatory oversight to support the Ministry of Consumer Affairs on its mandate to reform Spain’s fragmented gambling laws.

2021 saw the Ministry enforce a Royal Decree prohibiting gambling advertising and sports sponsorships, imposed as a federal order across Spain’s 17 autonomous communities.

Significant changes beckon for Spanish gambling incumbents, as Garzon and the Ministry move to undertake stage-2 of federal reforms focusing on licensing, consumer protection and the development of a new self-exclusion registry.

Undertaking its mandate last week, the Ministry launched a consultation on its ‘Decree Project’ seeking public feedback on its objective to overhaul Spain’s existing problem gambling support network.