Spain’s Region of Murcia will not apply—for now—the 500-metre minimum distance requirement between betting shops and educational centres to venues currently pending licence renewal, a stance the regional government says is driven by legal certainty concerns.
The issue resurfaced after a parliamentary question from IU-Verdes lawmaker José Luis Álvarez-Castellanos, who argued that renewals should be assessed under current conditions rather than those in place when the original permit was granted—particularly where premises sit close to schools and high-traffic youth areas.
Regional minister Luis Alberto Marín defended the approach by pointing to the risk of applying stricter criteria to licences issued under a different framework, effectively delaying the 500-metre rule for a subset of operators until the legal basis is clearer.
For operators, the decision is commercially material: it signals that existing venues nearing renewal may keep operating without immediate relocation, reducing near-term compliance costs and asset impairment risk, while leaving open the prospect of future tightening if Murcia legislates a binding distance regime.
The debate also connects to broader municipal-versus-regional tensions. In nearby Lorca, a court ruling struck down a town-planning change that sought to impose 500 metres from schools and 1,000 metres between gambling venues, underscoring the evidentiary and competence hurdles local authorities face without a stronger regional law.
