Spain reduces online gambling tax to 20%

The Spanish government has implemented a planned 5% reduction in online gaming tax for all licensed operators.

The current 25% tax rate will be knocked down to 20% from 1 July.

Eduardo Morales Hermo, senior gambling consultant at Ficom Leisure, said the reduction was “a very positive move, done at the right time when the market is still growing at a good pace and the regulator can defend the reduction without losing tax revenues.”

Willem Van Oort, founder of Gaming in Spain, said the motive behind the decision was “to bring on board more international operators, which form a very significant part of the market, especially in online casino and to facilitate more applications in the current licensing window.”

The Spanish government opened its third licensing period in December 2017, with an application deadline of December 2018.

Van Oort added: “With the new licensing round, I saw about 10 new operators entering the market. With the reduced tax, this could easily become 20 and I have had clear signals for that in the last few weeks.”

In addition to the reduction in tax, the Spanish government is offering a 50% rebate for gambling operators who choose to base their businesses in the two Spanish enclave provinces of Ceuta and Melilla.

Morales Hermo added: “The 5% reduction will improve the bottom line of the market leaders and will also help medium operators to soften up their losses and perhaps allow some to enter the breakeven point.

“Other niche vertical operators such as bingo operators like Tombola or YoBingo, will benefit directly in their bottom line as well since they have a big share of a small market, but with the highest margin.”