Official language: Spanish
Population: 46,157,822
Currency: Euro (EUR)

Current Exchange Rate
1 GBP = 1.0681 EUR
1 USD = 0.6754 EUR

Casinos in Spain
Casinos in Spain were not legal until 1977. Prior to that, only basic state-run lotteries were allowed. Since the legalization of casinos in Spain, they have become quite popular. Today there are over 40 large-scale casinos across the country. A few of Spain's casinos are owned by the state, but most are private. Spanish casinos pay no VAT, but they do pay special taxes on tables and machines, which can be as high as 63% depending on where the casino is located.

Recent changes to Spanish law in 2008 divided the country into 17 different regions, and each is allowed to grant its own gambling licenses. It was also announced recently that a particular desert area in eastern Spain between Madrid and Barcelona will become the country's "Vegas". A huge number of new hotel/casinos are planned – thirty at least – along with two theme parks, a race course, a golf course, and a large stadium. The new gambling supercenter should be finished by 2020, and will cost somewhere around 17 billion Euros to complete.

Online Casinos in Spain
Online casinos in Spain are on the way as well. The Spanish government has been working towards the legalization and regulation of internet gambling since 2002. Major works were done in early 2009, and the country is now well on its way to being able to offer special online gambling licenses to EU-based companies. The new legislation will open up the Spanish internet casino market to foreign interests, and players in Spain will soon have a huge variety of online casinos to choose from.

Until the new legislation is in place and licenses are being given out, Spanish players can play online casino games at any one of international casino sites.. Since there are no proper Spanish online casinos yet, these foreign casinos often offer Spanish-language versions of their websites and cater specifically to a Spanish speaking market.