The president of Castile-La Mancha, socialist Emiliano García-Page, has announced that no new licenses to open arcades will be issued in the region for the next four years. At an event in Cuenca, he explained that before the end of the year the executive would adopt regulations that would prevent the construction of new facilities of this type in the Autonomous Community. In practice, this is an extension of the suspension of new gambling house licenses that has been in effect since 2019, an initiative that was pioneered in Spain at the time. The government of Castile-La Mancha imposed the moratorium when it noted that there was “social concern” about the proliferation of these types of establishments.
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These concerns led to a new gambling law in the region, which was passed in 2021 and came into force a year later. This regulation limits the opening hours of playrooms and also prohibits them from being closer than 300 meters to an educational center. One of the aims of the regulation is to protect sensitive groups, such as young people. As García-Page defended this Wednesday, in the years in which they began “to put a stop to the gambling market in the region, a reduction of 14.5% in establishments specializing in these businesses was achieved. “
In addition to the extension of the moratorium that Page announced for his next government council, there is now a limit on new slot machines. As of now, permits for the installation of new machines of this type in the region are limited to 100 per year. The socialist leader has dared that in the next four years, as the current licenses expire, the number of slot machines at locations in Castile-La Mancha will be reduced by 800.
The aim of this new regulation is to help reduce the negative effects of addictions such as compulsive “commercial” gambling and thus protect the most vulnerable populations. According to the Ministry of Consumer Affairs' latest Gambling Prevalence Study 2022-2023, young people between the ages of 18 and 25 are most at risk of suffering from gambling disorders. The player profile in Spain is becoming increasingly younger (22% of players are under 25 years old) and entry into the game is largely personal, as the analysis details show.
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