🇪🇸Spain Gambling Licence: Requirements, Costs and Tax

• Administrative fees (Law 13/2011 art. 49): €10,000 per licence application and €100 per authorisation, €2,500 for register entries, a technical evaluation fee with a €38,000 minimum, €5,000 for inspections, and an annual regulatory fee of 0.1 per cent (1 per mille) of gross operating revenue.
• Guarantee: €2 million for a betting or other-games general licence and €500,000 for contests during the initial period (to 31 December of the year after grant), then €1 million for all general licences combined (€250,000 if only contests) plus a per-game amount for each singular licence: 6.5 per cent of net revenue for fixed-odds sports betting and bingo, 7.5 per cent for horse betting and exchanges, 8 per cent for roulette, poker, blackjack, punto banco and slots, 1.5 to 2 per cent of gross revenue for pool betting and contests.
• Terms: general licences last ten years, renewable for ten, and singular licences one to five years, renewable.

Sources (checked 20 September 2026): Law 13/2011, article 49 (fees) · DGOJ: guarantees for licensed operators · DGOJ: gambling licences (terms)

The gambling activities tax (Law 13/2011 art. 48, as amended by the 2018 Budget Law) is charged on net revenue, that is stakes less prizes paid, or on commissions for exchange betting.

• 20 per cent of net revenue for fixed-odds, pool and exchange betting, horse betting, contests and all other games (casino, poker, bingo, slots).
• 10 per cent for operators with tax residence in, and genuinely established in, Ceuta or Melilla.
• 22 per cent of gross stakes only for the state’s own pool betting (SELAE).

The tax is self-assessed quarterly on form 763 and shared with the autonomous communities by player residence. Corporate income tax applies to profits separately.

Live dealer studios and B2B suppliers. Spain issues no supplier licence. Technical systems and games are homologated by the DGOJ through the licensed operator, so studios and game suppliers are certified via their operator clients rather than licensed, and the 20 per cent tax is paid by the operator.

Sources (checked 20 September 2026): Law 13/2011, article 48 as in force (consolidated) · Order HAC/1363/2018 (form 763 after the 2018 reform) · Law 13/2011 (BOE consolidated text)

Timing depends on the calendar of public calls. General licences are granted only in a call published in the BOE, or in a procedure opened at an interested party’s request once 18 months have passed since the previous call for that category, in which case the DGOJ has six months to open it. Within a procedure the DGOJ decides within six months of the application, extended by any time the applicant takes to answer requests, and an application not decided in time is deemed granted. Singular licences are then applied for individually. The last general call closed in December 2018, so new entrants have since acquired licensed companies.

Sources (checked 20 September 2026): DGOJ: gambling licences (procedure)

Spain licenses online gambling nationally through the Dirección General de Ordenación del Juego (DGOJ) under Law 13/2011. An operator needs a general licence for each game category (betting, other games, contests) and a singular licence for each game type within it. General licences are awarded only in a public call published in the Official Gazette, or on request once 18 months have passed since the last call for that category.

• Entity: a sociedad anónima or equivalent with its registered office in an EEA state and gambling as its sole corporate object, registered in the commercial register and in the DGOJ’s register of applicants. An operator without a Spanish domicile appoints a permanent representative in Spain to receive notifications.
• Capital: €100,000 fully paid up for a betting or other-games general licence, €60,000 for contests only.
• Solvency: bank declarations, filed annual accounts and turnover for the last three years, and a description of own and borrowed resources.
• Technical: the technical systems are homologated by the DGOJ, players are identified and checked against the self-exclusion register (RGIAJ), random number generators are certified, and an internal control system records all gaming and financial operations with a data store located in Spain.
• Domain: a dedicated .es site, with all Spanish traffic and Spanish accounts redirected to it.

Sources (checked 20 September 2026): DGOJ: gambling licences (procedure and requirements) · Law 13/2011 on the regulation of gambling (BOE)

• Tax and fees: quarterly gambling tax returns (form 763), the annual 0.1 per cent regulatory fee and the guarantee kept at the required level each year.
• Technical: homologated systems, RNG certification, traceability of all operations in the internal control system with its data store in Spain, and inspection access for the DGOJ.
• Player protection: identification of every player, RGIAJ self-exclusion checks, responsible-gambling measures and the safer-gambling environments regime.
• Advertising: Royal Decree 958/2020 on commercial communications restricts broadcast advertising windows, sponsorship and bonus promotion, and licence conditions add further limits.
• AML: operators are obliged entities under Spanish anti-money-laundering law and cooperate with SEPBLAC.

Sources (checked 20 September 2026): DGOJ: gambling licences (obligations) · Royal Decree 958/2020 on commercial communications (BOE)

The licensee must be a sociedad anónima or equivalent with its registered office in an EEA state and gambling as its sole object, so a Spanish S.A. is the usual vehicle (minimum capital €60,000 under company law, €100,000 for the licence). An EEA company can hold the licence directly if it appoints a permanent representative in Spain, and establishment in Ceuta or Melilla halves the gambling tax.

• Corporate income tax: 25 per cent general rate, with a reduced 15 per cent for new companies in their first two profitable years.
• What must be Spanish: the .es site, the internal control data store, the permanent representative if the company is foreign, and the guarantee lodged with the DGOJ.

Sources (checked 20 September 2026): DGOJ: gambling licences (legal requirements) · PwC Worldwide Tax Summaries: corporate income tax rates

• 2018 — Law 6/2018 set a single 20 per cent rate on net revenue for all games (10 per cent in Ceuta and Melilla), and the last general licence call closed in December 2018.
• 2020–2021 — Royal Decree 958/2020 restricted gambling advertising windows, sponsorship and bonus promotion.