DGOJ accesses WHOIS to track .es gambling domains
The Spanish gambling regulator will be able to look into the domain registry. The Directorate General for the Regulation of Gambling (DGOJ) and the public entity Red.es signed an agreement, published in the Official State Gazette, which gives the DGOJ access to WHOIS, the database that supports the .es registry, and with it, visibility over active domains, new registrations, and the information backing each name.
The exchange runs both ways. Red.es will analyze and segment what is registered according to the criteria set by the regulator, to detect and report those that conflict with gambling and betting activities. The DGOJ, for its part, provides an up-to-date list of companies operating with a license and the specific vocabulary of the activity, and is obliged to notify every regulatory change affecting the .es registry. Both entities will also share statistical information and promote joint protection initiatives.
The origin of the agreement lies in a specific increase in registrations for malicious purposes. The BOE text inventories what has been found: cloned websites of licensed operators, phishing campaigns, identity theft, non-existent promotions, and mechanisms designed to hinder money withdrawals.
The second identified risk is the use of the Spanish extension as a gateway to unlicensed platforms. To address this, the two entities will study technical and legal mechanisms to strengthen the protection of these names and help identify unauthorized uses, imitations, and evocations capable of misleading consumers about industry brands.
The agreement lasts four years from its inscription in the State Electronic Register of Bodies and Instruments of Cooperation and can be extended for another four years by express agreement. A monitoring commission with representatives from both organizations will oversee its execution. There are no financial considerations between the parties nor financial obligations arising from the planned activities, and both are subject to specific data protection duties regarding confidentiality, security, and measures to prevent alteration, loss, or improper access to the information exchanged.
The approach is different from that which dominates in Latin America, where the usual tool is the blocking list that arrives when the site is already operating and attracting players. Spain intervenes one layer earlier, at the time of domain registration, where the name has not yet resolved and the owner is identified. The practical difference is that DNS blocking can be circumvented by changing the address in hours, while control over the registry targets whoever registers those addresses. The limit of the agreement is its territorial scope, because it only covers the .es extension, and most of the unlicensed offerings reaching Spain operate under generic domains outside of that registry.
Tags: DGOJ, Red.es, .es domains, unauthorised gambling in Spain