Spain's DGOJ to impose nationwide gambling deposit caps from 2027

Spain's consumer regulator has unveiled two digital measures intended to tighten oversight of online gambling, according to iGaming Business.

The Dirección General de Ordenación del Juego (DGOJ), part of the Ministry of Social Rights, Consumer Affairs and Agenda 2030, confirmed a national "joint limits" system that will set uniform deposit caps applying across every authorised operator a player uses, rather than limits set independently site by site.

From spring 2027, default deposit ceilings will be fixed at €700 ($783) a day, €1,750 a week and €3,300 across a four-week period. These figures will be totalled across all licensed platforms a customer holds accounts with, closing a gap that previously let players exceed intended spending controls by distributing deposits among several operators.

The DGOJ said roughly a third of online gamblers in Spain hold accounts with more than one operator, meaning the change is likely to touch a significant share of the active player base.

Customers will still be able to adjust their own limits, but any request to raise a cap will take three working days to take effect and can only be submitted once every three months, building in a deliberate delay intended to stop impulsive increases in spending.

The joint limits mechanism is currently being tested, with a full rollout targeted for March 2027.

A separate tool, the player portal, has already gone live and is reached through Spain's Cl@ve digital identity system at no cost to users. It brings together a player's deposits, stakes, wins and losses from across all licensed operators in one dashboard.

Within the portal, players can set personalised alerts tied to their spending, manage their limits directly, follow the progress of any request they have lodged relating to their account or limits, and download yearly summaries of their activity for their own records. The system can also flag when separate accounts appear to belong to the same person, helping to surface possible identity theft.

Both the joint deposit limits and a related self-assessment tool for players were first flagged earlier this year as part of the DGOJ's Safe Gambling Programme 2026–2030, a plan built around three priorities, six wider objectives and 24 individual measures still being finalised with input from the regulator's advisory body, the Consejo Asesor.

The joint limits announcement follows closely on a separate DGOJ move last week to open a second public consultation on a centralised monthly test designed to identify problem gambling behaviour. That proposed mechanism would be mandatory for all operators holding a state-level online gambling licence, requiring them to run an automated check within the first seven days of each month covering account activity from the preceding 183 days.

Taken together, the two initiatives mark a continued shift by the DGOJ toward centralised, cross-operator monitoring rather than controls managed separately by individual gambling companies.