Breaking: Spanish regulator resigns

Juan Carlos Alfonso Rubio, the deputy general director for the Spanish regulatory authority has left his role with immediate effect, eGaming Review can reveal.

Alfonso, who had served as deputy general director since March last year, had been responsible for assessing licence applications submitted by 62 operators and meeting deadlines in the run-up to the opening the market that has been delayed until thre end of this month or the beginning of April.

However, according to a local source close to the matter, Alfonso’s departure could now see the process delayed even further as member’s of Spain’s new right-wing government seek a replacement. “This now creates a situation of uncertainty that we could do without in the run-up to regulating the market,” he said.

Sacha Michaud, president of the Spanish operator association Jdigital, disagreed, claiming the licensing process was so advanced meant that there was not likely to be more than a delay of several weeks:

“I would have thought that [his departure] would have slowed down the process slightly, but the new director of gaming [Enrique Alejo] is hugely experienced in the private and public sectors, so I have absolute confidence that he will manage the process expertly.

“I think there may be a few weeks’ delay but a lot of the work has already been done, so I expect things to continue moving forward,” he explained.

Alejo was announced as the new director of gambling by the regulator in January this year.

The newly-elected El Partido Popular government imposed a six-month delay on the opening in late December to ensure Alfonso was able to have enough time to properly assess the estimated 600kg of paperwork.

Despite this Alfonso exclusively revealed to eGaming Review in February that licences were likely to be awarded by 31 March, and last week it was confirmed that around eighty per cent of operators had received pre-approval notifications from the regulator.

“He [Alfonso] was due to leave as soon as the market opened,” the source said. “He was well liked but liked to talk to people and the new government may not have approved of this and his way of doing things. They [government] are very meticulous with processes and do everything by the book. They believe that if you apply for something then you should be officially informed and that you should follow the rules,” he added.

Civil servant Laura Minguitos is thought to have been appointed interim deputy director while a replacement is sought.

Before becoming deputy general director of the Spanish regulatory body, Alfonso served as director of coordination for the Spanish state lottery authority (SELAE) for eighteen months. He had previously worked in the private sector, as head of legal for the PRISA media group for five years, and spent three years as a partner at KPMG.