MDF Partners study compares Spanish licensed operators with crypto casinos

A study by MDF Partners presented on 15 October in Madrid compared Spanish licensed operators with crypto casinos across seven dimensions. The presentation took place at the offices of law firm ECIJA as part of Gaming in Spain. Mauro De Fabritiis of MDF Partners presented the findings.

According to the data presented, a licensed operator in Spain requires on average about 18 fields to be completed across three to six screens, including personal data and identity verification. The crypto casinos examined allowed account creation with only two or three pieces of information, generally email and password, on a single screen, with document checks possibly deferred.

On financial operations, a deposit with a licensed operator may require four or five steps, including bank authentication. Crypto platforms allow funds to be transferred via a digital address or QR code, while carrying specific risks related to network choice and correct entry of the wallet address. Withdrawals showed a wider gap: licensed operators in the sample could take up to three to five working days to complete payment, while some crypto platforms allow transfers to digital wallets in about one minute. In certain cases, withdrawals could be made without prior document verification, within limits set by the platform.

The study examined 11 casino game categories. The three licensed operators considered offered six, four and four respectively, while the three crypto casinos examined offered all 11. The gap concerned in particular some live casino variants, game shows and progressive jackpots.

On promotions, MDF Partners found that 81% of the crypto casino offers analysed exceeded €100, against 22% of promotions from Spanish operators. It also found that 40% of crypto promotions included cash prizes, against 20% in the regulated market.

On player protection, the study identified 13 protection tools provided or available in the Spanish system, including self-exclusion, deposit limits, session controls, information on play activity and support systems. The crypto casinos examined offered at most five, often only partially. In the Spanish licensed system, the Registro General de Interdicciones de Acceso al Juego (RGIAJ) allows access to gambling to be blocked for registered users through identity-based checks; on the crypto platforms analysed, a self-excluded player could potentially circumvent the block by creating a new account with another email address and a different digital wallet.

De Fabritiis also noted the difference between the result-verification systems used by some crypto casinos, known as provably fair, and the guarantees associated with licences issued by the Spanish authority DGOJ. The former allow the result of certain bets to be verified mathematically, but do not certify the operator's overall reliability, the correct handling of payments or the effective application of protection measures.

The comparison sits within a Spanish regulatory framework in which obligations for licensed operators have been progressively strengthened. The presentation referred to six regulatory interventions since 2020, including advertising restrictions, responsible-gambling requirements, verification of ownership of payment methods and new provisions on deposit limits. According to the approach proposed by MDF Partners, a contradiction emerges in communication to users: licensed operators are required to highlight the risks of gambling and possible financial losses, while crypto platforms can promote speed, ease of access and immediacy of payments. The result, it said, is that players clearly perceive the obligations and limitations of the licensed market but may have a less immediate knowledge of the benefits, from game certification to the possibility of turning to the supervisory authority in disputes.

The question raised by De Fabritiis concerns the ability of the regulated system to keep its offer attractive while highlighting protection tools. The presentation's closing question was: "Stiamo trasmettendo ai giocatori il messaggio giusto?". For MDF Partners, the challenge is to make the value of regulation recognisable throughout the gaming experience, so that safety and protection become elements perceived by users and help keep them within the licensed market.