Spain’s Snap Election Freezes Its Gambling Law Rewrite, but the Deposit Caps Survive

Spain’s real money online casinos market faces a period of legislative uncertainty following Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez’s dissolution of the Cortes Generales and the formal call for snap general elections on November 29, 2026.

Published in the Boletín Oficial del Estado (BOE) under Royal Decree Royal Decree 806/2026 on October 6, the election decree followed Congress’s rejection of key government housing measures, immediately freezing all pending legislative initiatives.

While major statutory overhauls are halted, previously enacted executive measures, including a centralized multi-operator deposit cap system and rewritten advertising warnings, remain legally binding and unaffected by the parliamentary dissolution.

A Reform Still at the Talking Stage

The Ministry of Social Rights, Consumer Affairs and 2030 Agenda, led by Pablo Bustinduy, opened a public consultation in May on amending Law 13/2011, the gambling act. It closed on June 22. The ministry said it wanted to regulate celebrities and influencers in gambling ads, sign-up promotions and the way operators show up in search engine results.

The DGOJ said on July 21 that it had received more than 50 submissions and was starting a round of meetings. Jdigital, the association of licensed online operators, went first. The land-based associations followed on July 23 and LaLiga on July 28, with talks due to run through September.

Only after those meetings would the regulator write a draft text, and that text would then go out for a public hearing before moving any further. Jdigital said on September 21 that nobody expected a reform of this size to finish its passage through parliament this term. It asked for the work to become a starting point for the next legislature.

What Lapses With the Legislature

Article 207 of the standing orders of Congress says that once the chamber is dissolved, all business pending before it lapses, except matters that the Constitution hands to its Permanent Deputation.

That catches a bill with gambling-style rules in it that was already in parliament. The organic law on protecting minors in digital environments went to the Cortes on March 25, 2025, and the government said it regulated “exhaustively” the access to and activation of loot boxes, the random reward mechanisms in some video games. Demócrata, a Madrid political news site, reported on October 6 that the bill falls with the dissolution. Its committee report, the outlet wrote, will never be published.

Deposit Caps Are Already Law

The measures already in the gazette are a different matter. The cabinet approved Royal Decree 520/2026 on June 23, and it takes effect on March 25, 2027. It sets default deposit limits of €700 a day, €1,750 a week and €3,300 over four weeks, counted across every operator where a player holds an account. Until now each operator applied its own limit.

According to the ministry’s announcement, players seeking to increase or waive default limits must undergo a formal assessment process that includes standardized risk evaluations, historical spending analyses, and a mandatory cooling-off period. Market participants hold contrasting views on the impact of this framework: while the Ministry reports that 31% of active online players maintain accounts across multiple platforms, Jdigital contends that DGOJ profile data shows approximately 80% of gamblers engage with a single operator. The trade body warns that rigid cross-platform caps may drive high-volume consumers toward unregulated offshore operations lacking consumer safeguards.

Ad Warnings Landed the Same Day

Simultaneously, the DGOJ published an administrative resolution on October 6 enforcing updated mandatory warnings across all commercial gambling advertisements. Signed on September 18, the resolution replaces legacy responsible gambling phrases with explicit statistical risk warnings, including the mandatory statement: “La probabilidad de ser un jugador que pierde dinero es del 75 %” (“The probability of being a player who loses money is 75%”).

The resolution establishes a 60-day implementation window for new campaigns, alongside a three-month transition period for active marketing contracts. This regulatory action derives its authority from Royal Decree 958/2020 on Commercial Communications for Gambling Activities.

The messages replace the old line about playing responsibly and point to the regulator’s safer gambling site. The resolution takes effect 60 days after publication, and ad contracts signed before it get 3 months to adapt.

It hangs on Royal Decree 958/2020, the advertising decree that the Supreme Court cut back on April 2, 2024, in a case brought by Jdigital. The court struck out the ban on sign-up promotions and the ban on famous faces in ads. The ministry’s attempt to reintroduce those broader restrictions through statutory amendments to Law 13/2011 is now frozen due to the election, leaving the DGOJ to rely on administrative risk messaging within the legal limits defined by the high court.

Revenue Is Up 31% in a Year

DGOJ data put online gross gaming revenue at €539.2 million in the second quarter of 2026, up 31% from €411.1 million a year earlier. Slots were the biggest single game at €182.1 million. Pre-match and live fixed-odds sports betting together brought in €242.3 million.

Active accounts averaged 2.04 million a month across the quarter.

The reform now waits for a parliament that doesn’t exist yet. The deposit caps don’t have to wait for anyone. They start on March 25, three months after the new chambers first sit.