- The Spanish regulator (DGOJ) references the ongoing biannual meetings between Italy, France, Portugal and Germany “to … analyze formulas for international liquidity.”
- Part of Spain’s 2013 action plan is to continue aggressive action against operators without a Spanish license that are targeting Spanish players.
- The DGOJ will produce its full 2012 report soon and that will provide a detailed view of how poker has performed under the regulatory system.
La Dirección General del Ordenación del Juego (DGOJ), regulator of online gambling in Spain, has produced its proposed strategy for 2013.
Under a section headed “Coordination with the European Commission and other European Regulators,” part of the section on “Policy Development Forecasts for 2013,” the DJOG references the ongoing biannual meetings between Italy, France, Portugal and Germany “to … analyze formulas for international liquidity.”
The regulators have been meeting for informal information sharing and policy discussion twice a year. In July 2012 and again in December, shared play pools were discussed.
The DGOJ’s statement this week mirrors ARJEL’s annual summary, which also highlighted the importance for shared player pools.
For the first time, German regulators participated in the December meet. There is still significant confusion as to the status of online gambling in Germany; legal issues surrounding the implementation of the German Interstate Treaty on Gambling Regulation, not least its apparent breach of European Treaties. The Treaty does not recognize online poker, so there is no immediate hope for Germany joining an international liquidity pool.
Beyond the rhetoric, there has been apparently little forward movement on creating shared liquidity, something Director Enrique Alejo suggested back in July 2012 that could happen between Spain and Italy by mid-2013. But the recent statements from both Spanish and French quarters highlight that it is still on the table and could happen within a reasonable timeframe.
Also part of Spain’s 2013 action plan is to continue aggressive action against operators without a Spanish license that are targeting Spanish players. Currently, there are 70 investigations into these so called “grey market” operators and 17 disciplinary procedures have been initiated.
There are the usual political intentions to protect vulnerable people, minimize gambling addiction and conduct further research on the risks of gambling, but few concrete proposals. The report recognizes that operators have extensive mechanisms in place to achieve the desired level of social protection, but wants them to be researched further and sees potential for some “improvement.”
One helpful intervention that DGOJ proposes is to design and establish a customer service system for players to make claims against operators: “sistema de atención a las reclamaciones de usuarios del juego.” The Spanish phrase is vague, but could be interpreted as providing additional player protection in cases of fraud or when an operator goes bust.
Otherwise the document provides little insight into how well poker and other forms of online gambling have performed since the inception of the new system in June 2012; over 600k players who have deposited over €90m with licensed operators, but this is not broken down by market. DGOJ will produce its full 2012 report soon and that will provide a detailed view of how poker has performed under the regulatory system.