Playtech Well-positioned for Spanish Online Gambling

Recent changes in the Spanish gambling laws affected online casinos in a profound manner. As of July 1st, Internet sites offering betting services to Spanish players need to be licensed directly by the Spanish authorities.

The top online casinos in Spain already got through the licensing, while others are in the process. Some even withdrew from the market. The reason: a need to pay back income taxes on profits made while providing gambling to the Spanish residents as offshore sites.

The nation of 47 million, while affected deeply by a severe recession due to the housing market collapse and sovereign debt repayment problems, is still a relatively attractive market to pursue. When it comes to the new laws, these apply to the gambling software makers as these need to be approved as well.

Playtech, a major online and mobile casino software maker, is already offering games approved in Spain to its clients, which are the Internet and smartphone casinos. Playtech is even going as far as to offer live poker version to online Spanish poker rooms via a license provided by its partner, a local land-based casino.

That is not all. Playtech is continuing to develop more gambling software and is expecting to offer technology to power up the sites offering online bingo in Spain.

All is going well for Playtech. But, what will happen when the arch-rival, Microgaming, responds? Surely, the players of poker, bingo, and other games will certainly see expanded offering for their Internet casino and smartphone gambling accounts.