Tag Archives: Mikel Arana

DGOJ, the Directorate of Gambling of Spain, has adopted all resolutions of the SIGMA programme, Spain’s new ‘centralised directive’ to combat match-fixing and uphold the integrity of sports. Drafted in 2022, the SIGMA programme was launched in Q1 of this year to establish a ‘cooperative network’ to tackle criminal activity and the exposure of Spanish sports to match-fixing. The headline …

DGOJ, Spain’s General Directorate of Gambling, has started discussions on data administration policies and practices needed to establish a ‘common data registry’ for gambling information. The discussions on the framework to set up a centralised registry for customer data from all gambling operators licensed in Spain began on 16 May 2024. Director General Mikel Arana led the initial proceedings, hosting …

March is set to be a transformative month for Spanish gambling, as the DGOJ holds final ‘plenary sessions’ on the directives of the ‘Royal Decree on Safer Gambling Environments’.  This week, DGOJ Director General Mikel Arana guided Spain’s ‘Responsible Gambling Advisory Council’ through the ‘main novelties and technicalities’ of the Decree. Arana cited confidence that the Royal Decree will secure …

Spain’s Ministry of Consumer Affairs has published its draft framework of a ‘decree project’ aiming to establish ‘safer gaming environments’, and further consumer gambling safeguards as a federal mandate governing the gambling sector. The project’s foreword saw the Ministry and gambling regulator DGOJ outline comprehensive protective measures that are required to modernise Spain’s Gambling Law of 2011. According to the …

Spain’s 17 autonomous communities have agreed to establish a cooperative framework on the management and data sharing of their individual gambling self-exclusion networks.  The principles of a cooperative framework were agreed upon at a meeting of Spain’s ‘Gambling Policy Council’, chaired by DGOJ Secretary-General Mikel Arana. To date, the majority of Spain’s autonomous communities have individually maintained their player gambling …

Spain’s Ministry of Consumer Affairs has launched a public consultation seeking guidance on how to ‘modify the Gaming Law’ to include loot boxes as a gambling vertical.  The consultation has been launched with the primary focus of updating Spain’s gambling laws to allow regulatory agencies to judge consumer interactions on in-game purchases and incentives that require a financial transaction. An …

Mikel Arana, Director-General of Spain’s DGOJ, has confirmed that the regulatory agency has advised the government to introduce changes to the ‘Gaming Law’ in order to reclassify ‘loot boxes as games of chance’. The DGOJ’s leader urged Congress to support the initiative yesterday, stating that the government will launch a public consultation before the end of the year, aiming for …

Spanish football clubs and licensed bookmakers have been given a light reprieve, as Spain’s Consumer Affairs Ministry confirms that existing betting sponsorships will be allowed to continue until the end of the season.   The order is reported to have been signed-off by Alberto Garzon, Spain’s Consumer Affairs Minister, who has been charged with spearheading the federal reform of Spanish …