Directorate General for the Regulation of Gambling

• What is a report?
• Who can submit a report?
• How do I report an offence?
• Processing of reports by the authorities

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The Directorate-General for the Regulation of Gambling (Dirección General de Ordenación del Juego: DGOJ) is entrusted with ensuring compliance with state legislation relating to gambling and controlling its application, to which end, it has the legal authority to carry out inspections and to impose sanctions for any offences it finds. If you have evidence or material which may prove that an action represents a breach of Law 13/2011, of 27 May, on the regulation of gambling, you can submit a report making the DGOJ aware of that fact.

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What is a report?

A report is a communication which a player addresses to the DGOJ to inform it about circumstances which may constitute an administrative offence due to the alleged breach of Law 13/2011, of 27 May, on the regulation of gambling, without intending to obtain a solution, compensation or payment of damages in particular.

In particular, carrying on and marketing online gambling in Spain through a .com domain, or through a company which has not obtained the relevant licence in Spain, are activities which are considered “illegal gambling”, in accordance with the provisions of Law 13/2011, of 27 May, on the regulation of gambling, and, therefore, are reportable circumstances.

Based on such a communication, the authorities may initiate an investigation and checking phase in relation to the circumstances reported, which could involve initiating infringement proceedings.

The aim of those investigations, in this case, is fundamentally to protect and defend the public interest and the rights of all players, not those of a specific citizen or group of citizens, to prevent such irregular conduct from occurring again. The investigation into the report is not intended to restore the interests or rights of the person submitting the report , which may have been affected by an alleged administrative offence, even where the reported circumstances ultimately result in a sanction.

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Who can submit a report?

Anyone may file a report relating to gambling, even where the circumstances and conduct in question do not affect that person directly.

The fundamental aim of a report is to make the competent authority aware of such circumstances as are considered harmful to the interests of players, to prevent them from continuing to occur and affecting other people.

The person submitting the report is not an interested party in the infringement proceedings which may follow the phase of investigating and checking the reported circumstances. That person may not, therefore, appear in the the proceedings, nor have access to the case file or any preliminary proceedings which may take place.

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How do I report an offence?

Reports must submitted in writing and must include the following:

1. Identification of the complainant: forename and surnames, National Identity Document or equivalent identification document, contact telephone, email, etc.
2. Personal details of representative, if any. In this case, the complainant, and therefore signature, must be the same as that in the "Representative" section.
3. Notification address Pursuant to Article 41 of Law 39/2015, of 1 October on the Common Administrative Procedure of Public Administrations, notices related to this procedure will be issued electronically. If you wish to receive notices by ordinary mail, you must set up the postal address where you want notices to be sent.
4. Accreditation of Representation where the applicant acts as representative of the interested party or claimant.
5. Place and date.
6. Signature of the applicant or accreditation of the authenticity of their will expressed by any means.
7. Facts, reasons and claim in which the complaint is made clear.
8. Body, centre or administrative unit to which it is addressed (the DGOJ).
9. Identification of those presumed responsible.
10. All documents or any other type of evidence or indication that allows the facts to which the complaint relates to be known.

Means of submitting the complaint:

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Processing of the report by the authorities

Once the report has been received and registered by the DGOJ, it can be processed as follows:

• The inspection and control services will carry out the appropriate investigations and preliminary proceedings and, where applicable, will initiate the relevant legal proceedings.
• If the DGOJ does not have the authority to deal with the circumstances allegedly constituting an offence, it will notify them to whatever body it considers competent.
• Where the reported circumstances or conduct cannot be proved and/or classified as an offence, the report will be dismissed.
• The person submitting the report will be notified of both the relevant legal proceedings and, where applicable, of the dismissal of the report.