Madrid, 11 October 2026 — The Spanish government has acknowledged in a written reply to the Congress that it has not yet collected administrative fines totalling 465,427,500 euros imposed on illegal online gambling operators since 2022. According to the government, 128,427,500 euros related to 2022, 150,000,000 euros to 2023, 96,000,000 euros to 2024, 51,000,000 euros to 2025 and 40,000,000 euros to 2026. The reply was addressed to the opposition group of the Partido Popular.
The executive cites the cross-border structure of many operators as the main reason: they have no fixed place of business in Spain, are registered in non-cooperative jurisdictions, and continually change domains, payment routes and technical service providers. This creates legal and practical obstacles to enforcing fines imposed under Spanish administrative law.
The government also points to additional enforcement tools available to the Dirección General de Ordenación del Juego (DGOJ). These include orders to block domains, interventions in payment flows and measures to reduce the visibility of illegal offerings. These tools are intended to make it immediately harder to access the Spanish market and to document repeat offences. According to the government, documented infringements can also lead to exclusion from the market in subsequent licensing procedures and pave the way for other regulatory interventions.
Experts and industry representatives differ in their assessment of the gap between penalties and enforcement. On the one hand, large fines are seen as a legal deterrent. On the other, their impact is limited when debtors operate beyond the reach of national enforcement tools. Critics therefore call for additional international enforcement agreements and more effective mechanisms to secure and repatriate assets. Supporters of the current approach, by contrast, point to the immediate disruption of illegal operations through blocking and payment interruptions.
The DGOJ is the state regulator for online gambling. Recent administrative measures demonstrate closer cooperation with other public bodies, particularly with Red.es on domain issues. A cooperation agreement published in the Boletín Oficial del Estado on 28 September 2026 regulates, among other things, data processing and channels for information requests between the authorities. The aim is to speed up proceedings and make administrative interventions more effective.
The figures and explanations now given come from the government’s latest written reply to Congress. The case sharpens the political dispute over the strategy for tackling illegal offerings: while the Partido Popular calls for stronger international and criminal-law tools, the government emphasises the priority of swift administrative interventions and building robust data foundations for further measures.
Editor: Mira Cadena (Article created with AI assistance).