Jdigital has Royal Decree appeal accepted by Spain’s Supreme Court

Jdigital, the Spanish online gaming trade association, has had its appeal against the gambling amendments accepted by Spain’s Supreme Court.

Scheduled to be in place on May 1, the trade association emphasised that the ‘Royal Decree on Advertising‘ will impose disproportionate blanket measures which will leave ‘gambling consumers defenceless and unprotected’, should advertising restrictions be enforced across Spain. 

Taking its dispute with the Ministry of Consumer Affairs to Spain’s highest-ranking law court, Jdigital, said to be representing the interest of the country’s licensed online gambling operators, reiterated its market warning that advertising has been the ‘only measure’ provided by existing gambling law to protect against the threat of the unlicensed black market. 

In a statement, Jdigital commented: “The recently approved regulation at the request of the Ministry of Consumer Affairs is inconsistent with the reality of the online gambling sector in Spain.

“Clearly disproportionate, the Decree will not only be ineffective in solving the problems that the coalition government parties have been denouncing, without data, for years but will most likely aggravate them, contributing to a growth of the illegal market not subject to supervision.”

In its appeal, Jdigital states that it shares the mutual ambitions of establishing an ‘effective regulatory framework for gambling advertising across Spain’.

Prior to the Decree being sanctioned by the Spanish government, Jdigital and its members, representing 80 per cent of Spain’s online gambling market, had agreed to comply with a new code of responsibilities, significantly reducing advertising exposure across all mediums.

Jdigital maintains that the terms of its advertising resolution would not only safeguard Spain’s regulated market but further strengthen the supervisory capacity of the General Directorate of Gambling (DGOJ).

Spain’s Supreme Court will now judge two separate appeals against the Royal Decree on Advertising – as last week Spanish media and broadcast trade union AMI disputed the Decree’s ‘discriminatory timetable.

Approved last November, the federal enforcement of the Royal Decree on Advertising was delayed as the government ordered the Ministry of Consumer Affairs to allow a ‘grace period’ for football clubs and media owners fulfilling existing contracts.