It was apparently tempting fate when just yesterday pokerfuse reported that, “it appears that—for real this time—the first licenses will be issued on June 1.”
An agreement was reached this morning between the Spanish gambling authority and licensees to delay the launch of Spanish poker rooms until next Tuesday, June 5.
Having waited five months, who can argue over five more days?
Licenses will still be issued on June 1, as planned. However, the launch of dot.ES rooms will be delayed. Spanish players can continue to play on all dot.COM sites until the switch, with the moratorium officially coming to an end on Tuesday.
This time, the delay is not due to governmental interventions but at the request of the operators themselves.
According to a letter by online gaming association JDigital, published on poker-red, there was consensus between operators that issuing licenses on June 1, and going live on June 2, was a bad idea as the dates fell over a weekend.
This could cause a problem not just because of the increased traffic during the weekend period, but because the offices of many services and software suppliers would be shut—not a smart idea if something goes wrong.
“Good industry practices indicate that this type of technical project should be set on a weekday and in the early morning, where there will be better response from technical teams and user volume and activity is more manageable,” ended the statement from JDigital, who represents both local and foreign gaming interests in Spain.
According to multiple sources close to the issue, this request has been granted. So there we have it: Tuesday, June 5. Really, really, this time.
