Gamblers in Spain Embrace Online Poker – 26 Percent Growth in 2010

According to a recently released 2010 annual report by the Federation of Spanish Providers of Internet Betting – AEDAPI – (Asociación Española de Apuestas por Internet), online Spanish poker rooms experienced a 26% growth in 2010. Internet poker rooms in Spain should experience an even larger growth in 2011, according to the projections in the widely acclaimed report, which annually outlines the internet gambling industry in Spain.

The AEDAPI 2010 annual report showed that total profit of the internet gambling sector is at €315 million, which is equivalent to a 19% increase over 2009, with revenues alone up 20 percent. When the statistics for the entire online gambling industry in Spain are broken up into sub-components, online poker shows a growth of 26 percent and a hefty €85 million profit.

According to a news release from AEDAPI – “We are proud to present such strong documentation of the tremendous growth of Spain’s Online Poker Industry in within these results. The numbers have steadily increased by over 20% annually, which proves that we are in a growth area of the future. The future increase in tax revenues alone should be able to fund additional social projects to benefit the citizens of Spain.”

Spain’s Parliament will be discussing the results of the report shortly, after recently beginning the regulation of online poker as part of the Cabinet Act. The main points of contention will most like come from the government’s Spanish Socialist Workers Party (PSOE) which proposed modifying Spanish gambling laws to include a stiff increase in sales tax for internet gambling, which it views as “yet another way of exploiting the low income workers of Spain.”

The Popular Party of Spain (PP) which supports a regulated online casino industry opposes the PSOE proposed sales tax increase, which it views as oppressive. The final decision of the Spain’s Senate to be submitted to the Europen Union Commission will most not likely not be reached until June or July of this year.