Juan Espinosa Garcia was appointed as the new General Director of Spain’s online gambling regulator – Dirección General de Ordenación del Juego (DGOJ). Mr. Garcia is replacing the regulatory body’s previous head Carlos Hernandez Rivera. The latter announced that he was to leave his post in November 2016.
Mr. Garcia’s appointment was confirmed on Friday via a specially issued Decree Law.
Spain’s new gambling regulation head holds a Law Degree from the University of Granada, as well as several postgraduate degrees from the University of Edinburgh and King’s College London. Mr. Garcia joined DGOJ in 2013 as Deputy General Director. Prior to that, he had held a number of roles at Spain’s Competition Authority. For instance, he had been in charge of the unit that oversaw public bodies and administrations and the way these had been regulated. He had also served as Deputy Director General for International Relations in the Spanish Ministry of Science and Technology.
Mr. Garcia has extensive experience in the creation, adoption, and analysis of different regulatory frameworks which is believed to be of great help to him as General Director of DGOJ and to the regulator itself as one charged with the regulation of all online gambling services provided within Spain’s borders.
Spain’s online gambling market was regulated in 2012. Since then, the Directorate has been monitoring the provision of this type of services to Spanish customers and has been sanctioning wrongdoers.
According to the latest figures released by the regulator, the amount of €103 million was generated in gross gaming revenue during the third quarter of 2016. The amount reported represented a 22.2% increase from the prior-year period. DGOJ said that the relatively recent addition of online slot games to Spain-facing casino brands boosted the country’s gross gaming revenue.
Casino games generated a total of €28.4 million in the third quarter of 2016, up 56.7% year-on-year. The newly added slots accounted for almost half of the above figure. Revenue from those amounted to €13.8 million. Live dealer roulette was also among the best performing games during the reviewed period.
Revenue from sports betting amounted to €56.8 million, up 15% year-on-year. Online poker was once again Spain’s worst performing segment. Revenue from this type of offering dropped 4.3% in the third quarter of 2016 to €13.8 million. Revenue from cash games was down 9.7% year-on-year, while revenue from tournament poker increased 0.85% from the prior-year period. Online bingo generated €2.2 million during the reviewed three months, up 22% from the third quarter of 2015.
