No Signs of Underage Gambling in Spain Say Police

The Spanish police have issued a report showing that there are few signs of underage gambling in the country, based on 3000 inspections carried out. The report comes after claims that Spain has a problem with gamblers aged between 14-21 yrs becoming addicted.

The national enquiry from the Spanish police conducted in excess of 3000 spot inspections during a 48 hour period in approximately 1900 gaming halls. In total, just 28 cases of underage gambling were identified, a tiny percentage of the total.

Extensive national investigation 

The enquiry covered the whole of Spain, other than the Basque Country, with over half of all licensed premises inspected. Some gambling premises had more than one inspection in the 48 hour period but overall, just 28 occasions on minors gambling were found.

The findings were received positively by Consejo Empresarial del Juego (CEJUEGO), one of Spain’s betting associations for operators, who claimed that the figures prove that recent press reports of widespread problems were fictitious.

Alejandro Landaluce, the director general for CEJUEGO conceded that there was room for improvement, particularly with technology to prevent unauthorised access to gambling venues. However, he asserted that the data proves their previously held conviction that Spain does not have a significant problem with young gamblers.

Describing the number of underage patrons as “absolutely minimal” the CEJUEGO chief said that the operation had been reported incorrectly by the press. He slammed the media for describing the investigation as a crackdown on illegal underage gambling and for claiming that youth gambling in Spain is rife.

According to CEJUEGO, Operation Arcade (as the police enquiry was known) supports the data previously obtained about the number of underage gamblers in the country.

Ways to move forward 

Although CEJUEGO was very keen to highlight the inaccuracies reported in the press recently over the extent of underage betting, they admitted more focus was needed on preventative technology.

The body believes that by implementing tougher restrictions across the sub-sectors and insisting on identity verification, it will be possible to block underage gamblers from taking part.

Despite CEJUEGO releasing a study in June 2019 which showed the vast majority of the country – 92% – believed that gambling was a legitimate and acceptable hobby, over the weekend there were reports of protests against the industry.

The government have threatened to prohibit advertising of gambling and introduce tougher regulation and the recent protests won’t have helped CEJUEGO promote its message of acceptance.