Siege to the online game: Finance closed 271 illegal websites in Spain in 2017

While the Government of Pedro Sánchez - picking up the glove of the previous stage of Mariano Rajoy - finalizes a package of measures to regulate the game in Spain and its publicity, the Ministry of Finance has been working for several years to stop the illegal and fraudulent practices of the companies in the sector.

The licenses and authorizations of gambling houses and online are granted by said ministry, specifically the Directorate General for the Regulation of Gambling (DGOJ). Thus, this body gives green light to general licenses (bets, contests and other games) and singular licenses (one for each of the different types of regulated games) necessary for the exploitation and organization of online games.

In this sense, the DGOJ has had a lot of work. During the past year, according to the report of the game that the agency recently published, 195 new applications for licenses have been enabled, out of a total of 206 requests.

In turn, the Ministry of Finance has dismissed nine petitions and five others that were expected in 2016 have been removed. The new permits are basically related to new games (68%), mainly of slot machines or live roulettes, or with the integration of new game providers (13%).

But while the gaming and betting sector continues to grow significantly, the Ministry of Finance has placed a fence on companies and websites that do not end up being completely transparent or that commit irregularities. Specifically, according to the dossier presented a few days ago, in 2017 up to 271 pages were closed that did not comply with current regulations. The figure rises to almost the thousand -976 to be exact- in terms of websites that have not been closed, but that are not operational due to a lack of verdict.

Of all the incidents registered during the previous fiscal year, 20 disciplinary proceedings were initiated, of which 18 were taken over by the Ministry of Finance while the rest were initiated by the General Director for the Regulation of Gambling. In this sense, the Spanish treasury collected almost 10 million euros in fines for this type of page.

AGAINST the lies in PARTIES

On the other hand, Financethe also has pointed match-fixing.Moreover, other agents such as LaLiga or the ACB have been put to work and have their own equipment and research so that these situations do not occur.

It is worth remembering that in April 2017, the Global Market Research Service of the Betting Market (SIGMA) was created, in order to collaborate in the prevention and control of fraud with which it is intended to support and collaborate with the police against the match of results and fraud in the game, managing the exchange of information or pursuing and disciplining the behaviors of athletes and other people linked to sports.

Thus, during the past year there were 191 performances in which there were suspicions of rigged matches. In this regard, there were 121 requests for additional information from the main suspects and 18 requests. On the other hand, the Treasury acted ex officio on seven occasions and the State received 45 alerts on possible fraudulent actions.

As for the sports that repeat the most matches and illegal play practices are, as usual, football and tennis. In fact, a little over three months ago it was known that LaLiga had denounced to the Police alHuesca and the Nástic de Tarragona for agreeing on a result.

Ministry of Finance ALSO WATCH THE PUBLICITY

As previously stated, while the Government is preparing a new regulation to regulate advertising, the DGOJ puts some order and analyzes the advertising campaigns of the companies belonging to this sector.

During the past year, up to 754 prior publicity consultations reached the offices of the Ministry of Finance, of which more than 78% were positive, although 20% of them had to be modified.