Poll results: Significance of Spanish decline still unclear
eGR readers remain split on the seriousness of the dot.es market's first-quarter decline
Respondents to this week’s eGaming Review poll have been divided on the significance of the decline of Spain’s egaming market in the first quarter of 2013.
Both gross gaming revenue (down 1%) and turnover (down 0.7%) fell, with La Dirección General de Ordenación del Juego (DGOJ) saying that the downturn represented “a stagnation” of the sector.
The majority of readers considered the struggle to be part of a wider economic trend which would ultimately affect other European territories, with 32% of those polled believing this to be the case. However, more than a quarter of respondents (27%) regard the decline as a natural correction and merely a sign of growth levelling off after the dot.es market opened up last summer, and that there is nothing to worry about.
Yet a further 27% feel the struggles are unique to Spain where the percentage of those out of work has reached 27%, and the economy shrank by 0.5% in the first quarter of the year.
Just 14% believe the fall-off is a consequence of black market operators luring players away from licensed sites, though a number of operators have withdrawn from the Spanish online poker market due to what they have deemed “unworkable” operating conditions.