Mediaboss Marketing

A new gambling law in Spain will make it harder for British expats to have a flutter.

Expats will be barred from playing poker with fellow English-speakers internationally, while those who enjoy virtual bingo are likely to be frustrated in Spain.

From June 1, only companies with a Spanish government-issued licence and an .es domain will be allowed to run online gambling sites in the country.

The previous Socialist Party government passed a new gambling law last year that introduced the new rules, but the implementation of this was delayed when they lost power to the Popular Party in November (Stuttgart: A0Z24E - news) .

The new law doesnt, however, cover bingo, meaning those whove taken to substituting the UKs bingo halls for a bit of a flutter online will be out of luck. It has not been banned but the legal assumption is that if it isn't on the list of regulated products, it isn't legal.

While sports betting is permitted under the new law, live in-play betting has been excluded and there has been speculation that the regulation of betting exchanges such as that run by Betfair will be delayed.

Poker players will also lose out, as while the game is covered by the new law, the player pool is restricted to Spain and it will no longer be possible to take part in international games or tournaments.

Willem van Oort, chief executive of GranViaOnline , a marketing agency specialising in the Spanish online gaming market, said many British expats wont be interested in some of the sites on offer post-regulation. These people play on the UK-based sites and because of their residence they wont be able to do this anymore. They might not be interested in Spanish language poker or casino.

There are a number of expat high rollers living on the coast. But they may find it more difficult as the land-based companies who will now be setting up websites in Spain dont really understand these people, said van Oort.

While the law was on hold, a transition period allowed companies that had not applied for licences to keep operating. However, these firms will now have to withdraw from the market if they remain unlicensed Unibet , for example, has said that it plans to stop operating in Spain from this week.

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Spanish 'ban' online bingo