Directorate General for the Regulation of Gambling

The State Secretariat for Social Services and Equality and the State Secretariat for Finance jointly organised the first Forum on Responsible Gambling on 5 April 2013.

Since the Gambling Act, Law 13/2011 entered into force, public institutions are required to contribute to fulfilling its main objectives; namely to "maintain law and order, prevent addictive behaviour, protect minors and safeguard the rights of participants". Ultimately, the main objective of the act is protection: to protect users, minors and vulnerable groups.

The Responsible Gambling Initiative for Spain was launched with this in mind; to enforce protection requirements homogeneously on all gambling operators and create a joint strategy for responsible gambling across sectors. In short, this is a combined effort between public institutions and operators to allow for greater effectiveness in minimising the potential damage of gambling on society.

The first step in designing a common responsible gambling strategy was to create an Advisory Council on Responsible Gambling formed by representatives of the gambling industry, problem gambling associations* and experts in problem gambling.

The purpose of the Spanish Forum for Responsible Gambling is to raise awareness at a time when gambling services and advertising have a strong presence in our society. The forum is also an invitation for institutions, operators and society as a whole to reflect on the best responsible gambling strategy to follow.

The forum is divided into three parts. In the first part, various on-site and online gambling operators will discuss their responses to problem gambling. In the second part, various civil society actors will discuss the incidence of problem gambling and debate on ways of preventing and treating this condition. The third and last part will look at the impact of promotion and sponsorship by gambling operators and its social consequences.

Responsible gambling is, without a doubt, a task for all; for the whole of society, and especially for those who regulate and operate within the gambling industry. There is a joint challenge to establish the most effective mechanisms to protect the whole of Spain's at-risk population regardless of what they gamble on, what region they live in or whether they play in person or online. A shared strategy will allow us to offer real protection to vulnerable groups and citizens in general.

1st Spanish Forum on Responsible Gambling programme