Spain requires online gambling operators to verify payment-account ownership

Spain's Royal Decree 813/2026, of 7 October, took effect on 28 October 2026, adding a requirement to the anti-money-laundering regulations for online gambling operators: they must check that the holder of the payment method used for deposits and withdrawals is the holder of the gambling account. The text was published in the Boletín Oficial del Estado on 8 October, according to the report.

Electronic wallets channeled 11.27% of amounts deposited in 2025 and also operate on an account held by someone, whose identity the operator will have to confirm as the player, according to the report. Prepaid methods are the difficult case: a voucher bought with cash at a kiosk carries no name, and without an identifiable holder the check the decree requires cannot be carried out. Each operator will have to decide whether to keep prepaid methods and on what terms.

Bizum, which the DGOJ groups in the instant-payment category, accounted for 10.16% of 2025 deposits, the report says. It works only on an account at a participating Spanish bank linked to the user's mobile number, and that bank has already identified its customer under Law 10/2010, the report states. Because Bizum does not support withdrawals, winnings are returned by bank transfer, PayPal or Trustly depending on the operator, and the receiving account must also be in the player's name. Bank transfer already accounts for 33.76% of amounts withdrawn in the regulated market, behind card, according to the report.

Players registered before 28 October have six months, until 28 April 2027, to make the necessary changes, the report says. During that period the account remains open for deposits and bets, but winnings are held until ownership is verified. Since 21 October, players have had the Portal del Jugador, the Ordenación del Juego service that shows activity across all authorised operators on a single screen, according to the report.