The Spanish Council of Ministers officially passed a royal decree on June 23, establishing a unified joint deposit limit system among all licensed online gambling operators nationwide for the first time. The new regulation clearly sets three tiers of limits: €700 per day, €1,750 per week, €3,300 every four weeks. Previously, each operator set their own deposit limits, and players could easily bypass these by switching platforms. The government's initial intention was to close this loophole. However, Jdigital, the association representing licensed operators, issued a statement almost immediately after the decree was passed, with wording that clearly conveyed unease—"We are concerned about this move." This was just the beginning, with real worries to follow.
80% of players use only one platform, but the remaining 20% might just walk away
Jdigital cited data from the Gambling Regulatory Authority, pointing out a fact that makes the logic behind the new regulation somewhat untenable: about 80% of online players in Spain are active with only one operator. In other words, the "cross-platform cumulative excess deposit" issue that the new policy aims to address statistically involves only 20% of players. The association explicitly warned that the joint limit might instead concentrate player activity into the hands of operators with the largest market share, causing unexpected compression in the market competition landscape—bigger giants grow, and smaller platforms struggle more to capture the deposit limits of existing users.
The technical side was also listed by Jdigital as a major hidden danger. Real-time deposit tracking across operators requires a centralized system to aggregate all licensed platforms' deposit data and respond at millisecond level among thousands of simultaneous online players—both the construction and maintenance costs are considerable. The association specifically called for initial teething issues not to be directly translated into sanctions against operators, while urging the government to provide a "practical and feasible implementation schedule" to give businesses enough time to complete the technical integration.
The pitfall the Netherlands has already stepped into: the tighter the restrictions, the worse the diversion
Jdigital brought up the lessons from the Netherlands directly in its statement. Recent player protection measures implemented in the Netherlands—including deposit limits and consecutive tax increases—have been proven to worsen the channel diversion rate. A report commissioned by Ernst & Young showed that about a quarter of players in Spain are now engaging with the illegal market, and further tightening of restrictions is very likely to push this proportion even higher.
This logical chain has been verified by more than one country. Readers following the PASA official website have seen almost the same script in the case of the backlash from Dutch gambling taxes—measures to protect players are indeed effective in reducing harm, but the reduced gambling behavior often does not disappear but instead flows to illegal websites without any protective measures. If Spain's joint deposit limit successfully intercepts cross-platform excess deposits technically, but behaviorally pushes high-spending players to offshore platforms, then the government's initial intention to protect consumers might be undermined by its own tools.
Jdigital did not choose a confrontational path, leaving a window for cooperation at the end of the statement—willing to develop "effective, proportionate" solutions with public institutions, while maintaining a competitive and safe market and strengthening consumer protection. Meanwhile, DGOJ recently promised to allocate **€950,000** to establish a research fund to delve into six thematic areas related to gambling harm. The actual effects and industry reactions after the new regulation takes effect will be the most direct test of this limit system.
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This article is from "PASA-Global iGaming Leaders," a gambling industry news channel:https://t.me/pasa_news
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