Directorate General for the Regulation of Gambling

DGOJ Gambling Licences and Authorisations

• General gambling licences: granting and terminations
• Specific licences: requests and terminations
• Occasional gambling authorisations

DGOJ activity index

For general technical information on gambling licences procedures, consult the section for this purpose on the Directorate-General's website.

General gambling licences: granting, terminations and surrenders 

Since the creation and implementation of the Directorate-General, there have been three calls for the granting of general gambling licences.

• Call in November 2011

Fifty-nine companies took part in the call for gambling licences requesting 98 general licences and 202 special licences, a total of 300 licences (Order EHA/3124/2011 to approve the rules of the call for general gambling licences for running bets, contests and other games, published in the Official State Gazette (BOE) on 18 November 2011, and the Resolution of 16 November 2011 of the General Directorate of Gambling Regulation setting the procedure for applying and granting special licences).

In this call, 93 general licences were granted for running bets, contests and other games, and 189 special licences were granted for the corresponding types of games. This totals 282 licences granted to 55 licencee entities, of the initial 59 applicants.

• Call in October 2014

With the publication of Order HAP/1995/2014, of 29 October, approving the terms of reference governing the call for general licences to carry on and operate gambling activities under Law 13/2011, of 27 May, on gambling regulation, the second process of granting general licences to carry on and operate national level gambling activities began for those entities interested in being gambling operators in Spain, or for those entities already holding a national level licence and wishing to expand their gambling offer.

The aforementioned Order also resulted in the entry into force of betting-exchange and slot machines, whose basic regulations were approved by the corresponding Orders in July 2014.

As a result of the process, 10 entities which did not have a general gambling licence were granted a total of 18 general licences. Likewise, there were a total of seven operators who already had gambling licences and obtained a total of seven general licences. Likewise, two requests were inadmissible as they did not meet the regulatory established requirements. Concurrent to this process, 36 licences for various types of gambling were requested, simultaneous to the general licences to which they are linked. Of these, in one case the applicant withdrew the request submitted, and seven were inadmissible either due to late submission or because the request for a general licence to which they were linked was rejected.

• Call in December 2017

On 16 December 2017, Order HAP/1227/2017, of 5 December, was published in the official Spanish state gazette approving the terms of reference governing the third call for General Licences to carry on and operate gambling activities under Law 13/2011, of 27 May on gambling regulation.

The deadline for submitting applications for general licences ended one year after the day following the publication of the Order approving the aforementioned terms of reference, ending at 1:00pm on the last day of that period. The calculation of deadlines shall be based on the provisions of Article 30 of Law 39/2015, of 1 October, on the Common Administrative Procedure of Public Administrations.

Once the corresponding deadline has expired, the aggregate summary of the results of the call will be incorporated .

G. Expiry due to non-renewal of the guarantees (Article 42 RD 1614/2011)
R. Surrender

Specific gambling licences: granting, terminations and surrenders 

The current procedure for requesting specific licences is that approved by Resolution of the Directorate-General for the Regulation of Gambling on 1 December 2017, in accordance with Article 17 of Royal Decree 1614/2011, of 14 November, implementing Law 13/2011, of 27 May, on gambling regulation-LRJ, regarding gambling licences, authorisations and registers, establishes the application and issuing procedure for Specific Licences for the carrying on and operation of different types of gambling activities.

Prior to this there were two other procedures that regulated the granting of specific licences:

• Resolution of 10 October 2014, by the Directorate-General for the Regulation of Gambling, in accordance with Article 17 of Royal Decree 1614/2011, of 14 November, implementing Law 13/2011, of 27 May, on gambling regulation, regarding gambling licences, authorisations and registers, establishes the application and issuing procedure for Specific Licences to carry on and operate different types of gambling activities.
• Resolution of 16 November 2011, by the Directorate-General for the Regulation of Gambling, in accordance with Article 17 of Royal Decree 1614/2011, of 14 November, implementing Law 13/2011, of 27 May, on gambling regulation, regarding gambling licences, authorisations and registers, and establishing the application and issuing procedure for Specific Licences to carry on and operate different types of gambling activities.

A. Termination due to lack of use of a specific licence, for at least one year (Article 9.5 Law 13/2011)
B. Termination due to failure to obtain final authorisation of the specific licence (Article 17 RD 1614/2011)
C. Termination due to failure to renew guarantees (Article 42 RD 1614/2011)
D. Termination due to the specific licence term having expired without its renewal having been requested or it not being granted (Article 9.5 Law 13/2011)
R. Surrender

Occasional gambling authorisations

Regarding the activity related to occasional gambling authorisations, the DGOJ’s activity is set out in the following tables:

DGOJ activity index