Gambling in Spain: Online Gaming Surges, Concerns Rise
Madrid, August 11, 2025 – Spain’s Ministry of Social Rights, Consumption, and Agenda 2030 has released its Activity Report on Gambling in Spain, revealing a significant increase in online gambling activity during 2024. The report, validated in July by the Plenary of the Gaming Policy Council and prepared by the Directorate General for Gaming Regulation (DGOJ), highlights a surge in online players, raising concerns about the potential impact of reintroduced welcome bonuses.
Online Gambling Boom
The report indicates a 21.63% increase in active online gamblers in Spain last year. This rise coincides with the reinstatement of welcome bonuses by betting companies, which had been prohibited until April 2024. A Supreme Court ruling overturned several articles of Royal Decree 958/2020, including the restriction on these promotional incentives.
In response, the Ministry led by Pablo Bustinduy is pushing for an amendment to the upcoming Customer Service Law to ban these types of bonuses. The DGOJ’s recent “Annual Profile of the Online Gambler 2024” report provides further details, noting over 450,000 new players joined the online gambling scene in 2024, bringing the total number of active players close to 2 million (1,991,550). The report also highlights that over 80% of online gamblers are men (83.15%), and the vast majority (85.70%) are between 18 and 45 years old.
Operators’ Profits Soar
The Activity Report also reveals a substantial increase in profits for gambling operators. Based on the Gross Gaming Revenue (GGR) indicator, which calculates the difference between amounts wagered and prizes awarded, operators earned over 8 billion euros (8.108 billion) in 2024. The most significant growth occurred in licensed online gaming, with a 17.6% increase to 1.454 billion euros.
Overall, the total amounts wagered increased by 7.1% in 2024. Licensed regional games also grew by 2.5%, reaching 1.199 billion euros. State-reserved games and betting saw a 9.2% increase, totaling 5.454 billion euros.
Breakdown by Game Type
The report provides a detailed analysis of GGR by online game segment, showing how the 1.454 billion euros in revenue from licensed online games is distributed:
- Casino: 730.71 million euros
- Betting: 608.85 million euros
- Poker: 100.08 million euros
- Bingo: 14.94 million euros
Online betting saw the largest increase in operator profits in 2024, rising by 23.80% compared to 2023, driven primarily by conventional and live sports betting. Casino profits also increased by 16.96%, mainly due to slot machines. Bingo profits rose by 3.96%, while poker profits decreased by 4.99%.
Marketing and Active Accounts
The DGOJ report also details the marketing expenditure of gambling operators in 2024, totaling over 526 million euros. The largest investments were in promotions (261 million euros) and advertising (203 million euros), with over 56 million euros spent on affiliate marketing and 5.45 million euros on sponsorships.
The average monthly number of active accounts increased by 23.48% in 2024, averaging 1,433,715 active accounts per month. The average number of new monthly accounts also grew by 34.73%, with an average of 151,898 new accounts per month.
Collaboration with Autonomous Communities
This report, validated for the first time by the Gaming Policy Council, was developed in collaboration with regional governments. This joint effort provides a comprehensive overview of the sector, making it the primary source of official data for analyzing gambling in Spain. The Ministry emphasizes that the contributions from the autonomous communities allow for the disaggregation of data by region, enabling comparisons of gambling activity across different regions and modalities. The report also includes new information on self-exclusion registries and sanctions imposed by each administration in both online and land-based gambling.
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