He Government has approved this Tuesday the royal decree to prohibit the use of credit cards to vulnerable players who want to bet online. They will only be able to use nominative means of payment and that they own, and they will also have to have a telephone assistance and help service for risk behaviors. This is one of the novelties of the new standard, which will come into force in six months, and which contains around thirty measures to prevent problematic gambling behaviour.
The decree establishes that, if people obtain net losses equal to or greater than 600 euros (200 euros in the case of those under 25 years of age), for three consecutive weeks, they will be considered intensive or risk gamblers. Likewise, when they log in to play the instantaneous or pre-drawn lottery games, they must indicate the maximum time and the amount to play beforehand, which cannot be modified during its course.
The websites of betting and gaming pages online, on the other hand, they will have to send a must-read message every hour so that customers can continue playing. These will contain information about your gaming behavior during the session. In addition, the new regulations do not allow messages that encourage intensive play with messages such as ‘you almost hit it’ or ‘you were close’ at the end of a game.
Companies, for their part, may not send promotional activities to young people between the ages of 18 and 25 for purposes other than gambling on the web or platform. Invitations to matches or tickets for shows may not be included in programs either. VIP loyalty.
The decree will also reinforce the protection of other vulnerable profiles. Among them are those who engage in intensive gambling behaviors, those who have requested the restriction of access to their gambling account (self-excluded) and those enrolled in the General Register of Gambling Access Interdictions (self-banned). These players will not receive commercial communications and, in the case of participants who register in the General Registry of Gambling Access Bans (RGIAJ), they will be prohibited from accessing their accounts, deposits and participations within a maximum period of 48 hours.
The Ministry of Consumption has developed these measures after the royal decree regulated gambling and betting advertising, which stopped the entry of new players. Failure to comply with the new measures will imply fines of up to 50 million euros for very serious offenses and the loss of the gaming license. Serious infringements can amount to up to one million euros and these can lead to the suspension of the gaming license for six months.
