Spain’s joint deposit limits for online gambling entered a test phase on 21 October, with the Directorate General for Gambling Regulation (DGOJ) capping each player’s combined deposits across all licensed online operators at €700 a day, €1,750 a week and €3,300 over four weeks. The caps become binding on 26 March 2027, according to the consumer affairs ministry.
The ministry, formally the Ministry of Social Rights, Consumer Affairs and 2030 Agenda, also launched a Player Portal that lets anyone see their online gambling activity with every Spanish licensee in one place, it said in its 21 October press release.
How the joint deposit limits work
The system comes from Royal Decree 520/2026, approved on 24 June and published in the Official State Gazette (BOE) a day later. TGE reported the decree’s approval in June. Until now, Spanish deposit limits applied per operator account. The joint cap works per person, and the existing per-operator limits stay in place underneath it.
Annex III of the decree sets the default joint limits and how each period is counted:
- Daily: €700, from 06:00 to 06:00 the next day.
- Weekly: €1,750, from 06:00 on a Tuesday to 06:00 the following Tuesday.
- Four weeks: €3,300, over four consecutive Tuesday-to-Tuesday weeks.
Players can change or remove the defaults through a procedure that shows them extra information on gambling risks. A request takes three working days to apply, which the ministry said is meant to stop impulsive decisions, and a player can raise a limit only once every three months.
Real-time checks for operators
Licensed operators must connect their deposit systems to a central DGOJ tool and check it in real time before taking a deposit. Once a player’s combined deposits reach the joint limit, no operator may accept further funds from that player. The ministry said only the DGOJ handles the cross-operator data, so operators do not exchange information about customers with each other.
What the portal shows
The Player Portal is free and opens through Cl@ve, the Spanish government’s digital identity system, including for people with no gambling account. According to the ministry, users can:
- see deposits, stakes, winnings, losses and historical trends across all licensed operators;
- list every gambling account registered under their identity, to spot impersonation;
- set their own spending and activity alerts;
- manage their joint limits and confirm operators have applied them;
- download electronic activity certificates for full calendar years.
Who the cap targets
About one in three people active in Spanish online gambling play with more than one operator, and they are the main group the measure targets, the ministry said. The decree’s preamble states that about 80% of accumulated losses are concentrated among 10% of players.
Jdigital, the association of Spanish licensed online operators, has questioned whether the measure is proportionate, pointing to DGOJ data showing that around 80% of online players use a single operator. Jdigital filed comments on the draft decree with the European Commission’s technical regulation procedure on 7 December 2024.
Next steps
The decree enters into force nine months after its BOE publication, and requires the regulator to give operators a test version six months before that date. Under its first transitional provision, the first weekly and four-week periods start on the first Tuesday after the limits take effect in March 2027.
The DGOJ is running other player protection files in parallel: its consultation on a risk detection mechanism for operators closes on 26 October.
Source: Ministry of Social Rights, Consumer Affairs and 2030 Agenda
