Spanish gamblers given green light to deduct losses
Gaming regulator approves new interpretation of the taxation on players' wins - players had reportedly been moving abroad to avoid confusion over existing taxation which did not allow to deduct losses..
Spanish gaming regulator Dirección General de Ordenación del Juego (DGOJ) has approved a new interpretation of the country’s egaming regulation with regards to the taxation of players.
Previously it appeared that players would be taxed on winnings without being able to deduct losses, however it has now been confirmed that income tax is only payable on the net win/loss total.
This matter has been a cause for confusion since the first Spanish egaming licences were issued in June this year, and eGR understands that a number of poker players in particular have consequently moved to neighbouring Portugal and other jurisdictions rather than set up accounts with dot.es sites.
According to the new interpretation, on which the DGOJ is set to publish an official paper this week, players will be permitted to backdate these deductions as far back as 1 January 2012.
The Spanish online poker market is currently dominated by PokerStars, whose seven-day average of 1,360 cash game players (according to Pokerscout) is more than treble that of nearest competitor 888.
However iPoker, which currently ranks fourth for real-money cash game traffic, is expected to increase its liquidity through the addition of Betfair to its list of licensees. The exchange operator signed a deal earlier this month to offer poker on the Playtech-owned network in regulated markets.
Talks have been ongoing for several months between the DGOJ and its counterparts in Italy, France and Portugal with regards to a shared liquidity framework, however with Portugal’s own regulation currently in the draft phase and unlikely to come into force before 2013 at the earliest, a common pool between the four EU member states is not expected until next year.
However the DGOJ did move this week to enter a bilateral agreement with French regulator ARJEL, following ARJEL’s own agreement with Italian authority AAMS last year.
Meanwhile the Spanish regulator has also approved a tax of 20% on all lottery prizes above 2,500, with the measure included in the country’s 2013 budget.