Castilla y León to revise all gambling regulations, says González Gago

The presidency councillor of Castilla y León, Luis Miguel González Gago, said the regional government will revise the entire regulatory development of gambling to adapt it to the reform of the law. He announced the plan at the opening of the XIX Congreso de Juego de Castilla y León in Soria on 20 October. The review covers gaming machines and arcades, bingo, casinos and betting, as well as advertising, sponsorship and promotion of gambling, and company registers and procedures.

González Gago said the 1998 gambling law was amended in 2024, followed by a decree of 20 March 2025 on raffles and tombolas for advertising purposes and an order of 11 March 2026 updating the regulation of type B machines operated under a server. He said it is now necessary to modify the whole regulatory development to update it and accommodate it to the new legal provisions. He said the aim is not only to set new rules but also to check how the existing ones work, and that technical meetings have been held with the different subsectors in recent months.

According to the councillor, Castilla y León has more than 450 companies linked to private gambling, which generate about 2,000 direct jobs and contribute around €60m a year to the regional treasury. He said the region has three casinos, 16 bingo halls, 116 gaming arcades, 13 betting shops, 73 betting areas and 70 betting corners, and 12,195 authorised gaming machines, of which 9,571 are installed in hospitality venues.

On player protection, González Gago said 1,146 people are registered in the region's register of persons prohibited from accessing gambling, 0.052% of the adult population. He pointed to the Comisión Técnica de Coordinación del Juego Responsable, created by the decree of 20 March 2025, which includes regional ministries with gambling-related responsibilities, the Federación Regional de Municipios y Provincias, social entities and business associations. He said the proposed regional plan against pathological gambling for 2027-2030, covering prevention and treatment, is at a very advanced stage of preparation within that framework.

The councillor said the administration has a duty to seek integration and harmony between business activity and user protection without taking sides, and that the objective is regulation that is sufficiently clear and stable but also able to adapt. He said every entrepreneur, particularly a self-employed person running a small or medium-sized enterprise, deserves respect for risking their own economy and assets to start a business, and that the gambling business sector has repeatedly shown commitment to legality, technological innovation, self-regulation and social responsibility. He thanked the associations taking part in the congress: FAOCALE and ASEOCYL for machines, SAJUCAL for arcades, ASECAL for bingo halls, Casino Roxy de Valladolid, Casino Tormes de Salamanca and Casino Conde Luna de León for casinos, and ALACA for betting.

González Gago said his speech was limited by the electoral period ahead of the coming general elections, in which, he said, no assessments of successes achieved can be made and no investment projects or formal achievements for the future can be presented. He was joined at the opening table by the president of the Diputación Provincial de Soria, Benito Serrano; the director of Institutional Relations and External Action, Ruth Andérez; and the territorial delegate of the Junta in Soria, Yolanda de Gregorio. He closed by saying he would not declare the congress inaugurated because he could not, and that the congress was beginning.