Spain changes responsible gambling notice to three warnings
Spain is set to replace the invitation to play responsibly with three phrases stating how much is lost. A resolution from the Directorate General for the Regulation of Gambling (DGOJ), which operates under the Ministry of Social Rights, Consumer Affairs and Agenda 2030, requires online operators to change this message to three fixed warnings. The first, problem gambling is a risk of gaming. The second, the probability of being a player who loses money is 75%. And the third, the losses of all players exceed their winnings by 4 times. The maximum period to implement this is 60 days from publication.
The warning about minors is also standardized. It will have a single wording, only for those over 18 years of age, with no room for proprietary versions. The three messages must also be accompanied by a reference to the regulator's safe gambling site and, where the medium allows, the player must be redirected to that website when clicking on the notice.
In audiovisual media, the resolution goes into production details. The message about problem gambling must be read aloud, always at the end of the advertisement and for a minimum of two seconds. The warning about minors can be included in the same voiceover, also for a minimum of two seconds, or as a graphic band at the bottom of the notice, in which case it must remain visible throughout the piece and cover at least 15% of the height and 100% of the width.
Radio receives a frequency rule instead of a duration rule. Messages must appear in one commercial broadcast out of every two successive ones, as a minimum, provided it is the same operator with the same service provider. Radio is exempt, in the contest modality, from including the notice about the harm caused by problem gambling or about risky behavior.
For in-person media, the rule allows for an exception based on size. One of the three messages is displayed according to the campaign and, when the medium is too small for the text to be easily read, the warning that gambling is a risk can be used. In other media, the three phrases must rotate alternately and tendentially equally throughout each campaign, without prioritizing any over the others.
The section that will hurt the most is that of the platforms themselves. Operators' websites and applications, as well as those of their affiliates, when carrying advertising or promotional offers, will have to display the messages in a graphic advertisement, in a pop-up window or in an equivalent format, centered and with a size that reaches at least 15% of what is visible on the device. These notices must remain visible for a minimum of five seconds, or until the user decides to close them, and operators' websites and apps must display them permanently. The requirement does not extend to the operator's own gaming environment. As for advertising contracts signed before publication, they can continue to be executed for three more months without adaptation.
The resolution, signed on September 18, was by Mikel Arana, head of the Directorate General for the Regulation of Gambling, and the text translates Royal Decree 958/2020, the regulation that governs commercial communications for gambling, into a regulation.
The fundamental change is not in the format but in what the message says. Asking the player to gamble responsibly shifts the burden to their behavior; informing them that three out of four players lose money describes the product. These are two figures that come from the regulator's own data and that the operator is obliged to publish even if they argue against what they sell. The other fine point is the express inclusion of affiliates, who support comparison and bonus websites, so that the obligation moves out of the operator's domain and into the channel that brings them traffic. It is also the DGOJ's second move in a few days, after the agreement with Red.es to track .es domains linked to gambling, two measures that point to the same place through different channels: what is seen and who publishes it.
Tags: DGOJ, Gambling advertising in Spain, Problem gambling prevention, Royal Decree 958/2020