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Spain reduces gambling tax in latest budget

Spain has included several gambling tax reductions in its 2018 budget, including a 5% cut to online gambling operator’s taxes.

Updated on 3 July 2018

Harrison Sayers

Gambling Writer

The budget will see gross gaming revenue tax for online operators cut from 25% to 20%.

Pari-mutuel sports betting is being reduced to 20% after a cut of 2%. However, both pari-mutuel horse racing and pari-mutuel pool betting will see their gross gaming revenues hit with a 5% increase, rising from 15% to 20%.

The new tax reductions will cover most online gambling offerings including sports betting, bingo, poker, betting exchanges, online casino games, and fixed odds betting.

The budget did not include any change to the 10% tax rate enjoyed by online operators located in Ceuta and Melilla, two of Spain’s autonomous cities located in North Africa.

Cristóbal Montoro, Spain’s former Minister of the Treasury and Public Administrations, announced the proposed gambling tax cuts in April. He suggested that they would attract more licensed operators and tackle unregulated gambling.

The Spanish gambling regulator, Directorate General for the Regulation of Gambling (DGOJ), confirmed in December 2017 that it would open the license application for online gambling operators for only the third time in its history.

“The proper functioning of the regulated online gaming market is fundamental to ensure that gaming activity is sustainable and compatible with social welfare, making it possible to channel it into an adequate legal framework and with all the guarantees that regulation establishes for consumers,” said the DGOJ.

According to DGOJ, the online gambling market in Spain reached $190.35m for the first quarter of 2018 and $653.48m during the whole of 2017.

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Harrison Sayers

Gambling Writer

Harrison Sayers is a journalist and editorial professional specialising in the gambling and iGaming sector. He began his career at Gambling Insider, where he served first as Editorial Assistant (July 2017 – November 2017) and then as Staff Writer from March 2018 to October 2018, contributing news coverage and industry analysis to both the publication’s digital and print channels.

Since then, he has continued his career in gambling regulation and compliance journalism, working with GamblingCompliance and VIXIO where he covers regulatory issues and industry developments across European and African jurisdictions.

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