Are online casinos legal in Spain?

Are online casinos legal in Spain?

Yes, but only at licensed sites. As of October 1, 2026, real-money online casinos are legal in Spain when they’re run by an operator licensed by Spain’s gambling regulator, the Directorate General for the Regulation of Gambling (Dirección General de Ordenación del Juego, DGOJ), on a .es domain listed in the DGOJ’s register. You must be 18 or older to play.

Spain’s Gambling Act (Ley 13/2011) sets the rules. Gambling offered without the required Spanish license is prohibited, and licenses issued by other countries “no serán válidos en España” (won’t be valid in Spain), under art. 9.4. Any type of game the law doesn’t regulate is banned outright (art. 5.3).

Our ranking of online casinos licensed in Spain only includes DGOJ licensees that hold casino licenses, on .es domains listed in the register.

How Spain’s casino licenses work

Spain licenses online gambling in two layers: a general license (licencia general) for a broad type of gambling, plus a singular license (licencia singular) for each game type.

• General license. Casino games fall under the “Otros juegos” (other games) general license (art. 3.f). The DGOJ grants general licenses after a public call; they last 10 years and can be extended for another 10 (art. 10).
• Singular licenses. Each game type needs its own singular license, valid for one to five years and renewable. An operator that loses its general license loses its singular licenses too (art. 11).

Four singular licenses cover casino games; poker and bingo, also under “Otros juegos”, have their own.

How many online casinos are licensed in Spain?

As of October 1, 2026, the DGOJ’s register listed 78 licensed operators: 72 held the “Otros juegos” general license and 59 held at least one casino license. Many run several brands, so there are more casino websites than licensees; one operator lists 24 .es domains.

Treat 78 as the register’s figure on that date. A downloadable DGOJ list last modified in December 2022 has 79 rows, and the register can lag: at least one operator’s page showed casino licenses provisionally granted on September 24, 2026, that weren’t yet in its license field. For a given site, check the live register.

Licenses are tied to .es domains

A Spanish license covers specific websites. Licensees must offer their games on a .es domain and redirect connections from Spain to it (Gambling Act, art. 10.4), and the register lists the .es domains attached to each operator.

How to check that a casino is licensed

Check three things before you deposit:

1. The domain. The address should end in .es, and a licensed operator should redirect you there if you arrive from Spain on another domain.
2. The DGOJ register. Search the DGOJ’s “Buscador de operadores” (operator search) on ordenacionjuego.es for the company or brand, open the operator’s page and confirm that the exact domain you’re using is listed. Brand-name fields are often empty, so the domain list is the surest match. Check the singular licenses too, since each game type needs its own.
3. The “Juego autorizado” link. Under Royal Decree 176/2023 on safer gambling, licensed sites must show a “Juego autorizado” (authorized gambling) link to their license details and the DGOJ website, plus a clearly visible “Juego más seguro” (safer gambling) link on the home page (art. 9).

If the domain isn’t in the register, the site isn’t licensed in Spain, whatever it claims.

Age, identity checks and deposit limits

You must be 18 or older: the Gambling Act bars minors from gambling (art. 6.2.a), and licensed operators must confirm who you are before you can play.

• Identity checks. The operator must verify your identity, tax ID and residence before activating your account, using the DGOJ’s real-time checks for residents; registrations that can’t be verified within a month are canceled (Royal Decree 1613/2011, arts. 26–27).
• Self-exclusion. Operators check the RGIAJ (Registro General de Interdicciones de Acceso al Juego), Spain’s national self-exclusion register, when you sign up and again before paying any prize. Our gambling help guide for Spain explains how to register.
• Session limits. Before each casino session, you set a maximum time and net loss, and play stops when you reach either (Royal Decree 176/2023, art. 13).

Deposit limits apply by default:

• Per-operator limits (Royal Decree 1614/2011, art. 36 and Annex II) can be lowered immediately. Raising or removing them requires passing the DGOJ’s responsible-gambling tests with no risky behavior in the previous three months; the change takes effect within three days, and you can’t raise them again for three months. Gambling on credit isn’t allowed.
• Cross-operator limits come from Royal Decree 520/2026 of June 24, 2026, and apply from March 25, 2027. They cap your combined deposits at all licensed operators; a day runs from 06:00 to 06:00, and a week from Tuesday 06:00 to Tuesday 06:00. Lowering them is immediate, while raising or removing them takes effect after three business days, with no new increase for three months. Per-operator limits stay in place.

What happens to unlicensed casinos

Unlicensed sites face large fines and blocking, and promoting them is sanctioned too. Running online gambling in Spain without a DGOJ license is a “very serious” infraction (art. 39.a), punishable by fines of €1 million to €50 million, plus possible disqualification for up to four years and closure of the websites involved (art. 42).

• Fines. As of October 1, 2026, the DGOJ’s published sanction register listed 101 very serious cases since 2021, 99 of them for operating without a license. In 2024, fines for very serious infractions totaled €96 million.
• Blocking. The DGOJ can order telecom companies to stop resolving an unlicensed site’s domain for users in Spain (art. 47). It sent 50 blocking requests in 2019, 240 in 2023 and 233 in 2024.
• Promoters. Advertising or promoting unlicensed gambling is banned “bajo cualquier forma” (in any form), and promoting play from Spain on unlicensed websites is a serious infraction, fined at €100,000 to €1 million (arts. 7, 40 and 42). In cases opened in 2024 and 2025, the DGOJ fined four websites €500,000 each for promoting unlicensed gambling, including affiliate sites run by companies with addresses outside Spain.
• Players. Taking part from Spain in gambling on an unlicensed site by masking your IP address is itself a minor infraction (art. 41.f), punishable by a written warning or a fine of up to €100,000.

Unlicensed sites also aren’t bound by the protections above: no Spanish identity checks, no RGIAJ check and no default deposit limits.

How big is Spain’s online casino market?

Licensed online casinos took €891.1 million in gross gaming revenue (GGR: stakes minus winnings paid) in 2025, up 21.9% from 2024. That’s 52.5% of the €1,698.7 million earned by Spain’s licensed online gambling market, more than betting.

Slots drive the market, with €615.3 million of GGR in 2025, followed by live roulette at €232.3 million; blackjack (€24.4 million) and RNG roulette (€19.1 million) are far smaller. Monthly active gambling accounts averaged about 2.04 million in the second quarter of 2026 (accounts across all games, not unique players).

These are our totals of the DGOJ’s monthly open data through June 2026, so they can differ slightly from figures in DGOJ press releases. The DGOJ doesn’t publish revenue by operator or brand.

The Gambling Act is being reformed

From May 18 to June 22, 2026, the DGOJ held a public consultation on reforming the Gambling Act, covering celebrities and influencers in gambling ads, promotions for new customers, ads in search results, stronger identity and payment-method checks, and new tools against illegal gambling. As of October 1, 2026, no draft bill had been published. Bonuses are part of the debate; see our guide to casino bonuses in Spain.

The bottom line

Online casinos are legal in Spain only at DGOJ-licensed operators, on the .es domains in the DGOJ register, and only for adults. Check a site’s domain against the register before you deposit, and set limits that fit your budget. To compare licensed casinos, see our top-rated online casinos in Spain and how we rank them. Winnings can be taxable, as our gambling tax guide for Spain explains.

This page is general information, not legal or tax advice. It reflects Spanish law and the DGOJ register as of October 1, 2026.