“A tangle of regional laws and regulations regulate disparate issues regarding the operation of these games, such as the frequency with which prizes must be awarded, controls to ensure that the system is not rigged, access control for minors or the limits of their publicity”, explains the journalistic note. This is stated in an article in the newspaper El País, which states that "the control of this notable business in our country is diffuse" and that it "advances at different speeds."
"Manufacturers must adapt their products to each community, in order to be able to approve them and register them in the corresponding registry of recreational and gambling machines,"
The different laws of the autonomous communities of Spain on type B or slot machines in hospitality establishments make it difficult to control this sector, which mainly covers machines that work in bars, restaurants, and cafeterias in the European country.
The sector of slot machines in hospitality establishments —which brings together 140,792 type B machines and which accumulated EUR 2,252 million in 2021, according to the latest CeJuego statistics— is part of a “regulatory puzzle” with “a golden rule: these machines they must give a determined number of prizes, with a frequency defined by law”.
“Specifically, the common thing is that the gaming companies are obliged to return to the players at least 70% of the investment. This is stipulated, for example, in the regulations of Andalusia, Extremadura, the Balearic Islands or the Community of Madrid, among others”, they detailed.
According to the article, this and other characteristics of the machines must be approved and certified by laboratories, but "the amalgam of regional laws that regulate these conditions makes this bureaucracy difficult."
