The licensed markets of the south
Spain, Italy, France and Portugal licensed online gambling between 2010 and 2015, earlier than Germany or the Netherlands, and their regimes have the marks of that first generation: product restrictions written before mobile, advertising rules rewritten after a backlash, and tax structures that have been adjusted repeatedly. Belgium, though northern, belongs with them in one respect, having moved to the most restrictive advertising regime in Europe. Together they show a licensed model that has been in place long enough to have been reformed twice, and each reform points the same way.
Spain
Spain's Gambling Act of 2011 created a national licensing regime for online gambling under the Dirección General de Ordenación del Juego (DGOJ), alongside the regions' authority over land-based gambling. General licences for betting, contests and "other games" and singular licences for each product (roulette, blackjack, poker, slots, bingo, sports betting) are granted in windows, taxed at 20 per cent of gross gaming revenue (reduced in the autonomous cities), with mandatory identity verification against the national identity database, a national self-exclusion register, and a technical certification regime run through approved laboratories.
The defining Spanish reform is the 2020 Royal Decree on commercial communications, which banned gambling advertising on television and radio outside a one-to-five in the morning window, banned sponsorship of sports teams and shirts, banned welcome bonuses for new customers and restricted bonuses to customers of thirty days' standing who had been verified, and restricted online and social advertising to opted-in adults. The Supreme Court annulled several provisions in 2024 (notably parts of the bonus and social-media restrictions) on the ground that they lacked a legal basis in the 2011 Act, and the government has moved to restore them through legislation; the position on bonuses has been contested since, and operators have applied the surviving rules cautiously. Spain also introduced in 2023 a decree on safer gambling environments requiring operators to identify intensive and at-risk players, apply limits and interactions, and report; and it has been active in enforcement against unlicensed operators and in cooperation with other regulators.
Italy
Italy has the longest history of online licensing in Europe, dating to the early 2000s, and the largest licensed market by number of operators. The regulator, the Agenzia delle Dogane e dei Monopoli (ADM), grants concessions rather than licences, under a tendering system that was overhauled in 2024 with a new concession regime: a nine-year online concession at a fee of seven million euros, a limit on the number of brands per concession, requirements for substance and technical certification, and gaming taxes on gross gaming revenue by product (in the range of 20 to 25 per cent for online casino and betting under the reformed rules). The reform was designed to reduce a concession count that had reached the hundreds and to raise the cost of entry; the number of concessions fell sharply as a result.
Italy's other defining feature is the 2018 Dignity Decree, which imposed a near-total ban on gambling advertising and sponsorship, including on sports shirts, television, online and events, with narrow exceptions for informational content. The ban has been enforced by the communications regulator with fines against operators, media and platforms, and interpreted through guidelines that permit some brand presence in limited forms; the industry has argued since 2018 that it drives customers to unlicensed operators who advertise freely, and the government has periodically considered relaxing it without doing so. Player protection runs through mandatory identity verification, a national self-exclusion register, deposit limits and a system of technical controls on games; land-based gambling is regulated regionally with the national concessions layered over it.
France
France licensed online gambling in 2010 under a regime that reflects its policy of limiting gambling: online sports betting, horse racing betting and poker are licensed, but online casino games (slots, roulette, blackjack) are prohibited, a position the government has maintained through 2026 despite repeated proposals, and a rare instance of a large European market excluding casino altogether. The regulator, the Autorité Nationale des Jeux (ANJ), created in 2020 from its predecessor with expanded powers over the state lottery and racing monopolies, licenses operators, approves their annual promotional strategies and action plans on harm, and has used that power to cap and cut advertising and bonus volumes operator by operator. Tax is charged on gross gaming revenue for betting and on rake for poker at rates set by the social security code, with levies for sport and racing; the structure was revised in 2020 from stakes to revenue.
French player protection is distinctive for the regulator's active supervision of operators' marketing plans, its restrictions on advertising content and volume, its focus on excessive-gambling indicators, and its enforcement against unlicensed sites through blocking orders that it can now issue administratively. The prohibition on online casino, and the resulting size of the unlicensed casino market, is the French version of the channelisation debate; industry estimates put unlicensed casino play at a large multiple of the licensed poker market, and the debate about licensing it recurs in every budget.
Portugal
Portugal's online regime, in force since 2015 under the Serviço de Regulação e Inspeção de Jogos (SRIJ) within the tourism authority, licenses casino, poker, bingo and betting with a tax structure that has been the market's main issue: a tax on gross gaming revenue for casino and poker and, until 2020, a tax on stakes for sports betting that was so heavy that few operators applied, since replaced by a revenue-based rate. The regime requires identity verification through the national registry, a self-exclusion register, deposit limits and technical certification; advertising is regulated under the general advertising code with gambling-specific restrictions, and the regulator has become more active against unlicensed operators and in cooperation with other regulators. The market is small but has grown steadily since the tax reform.
Belgium
Belgium's Gaming Commission licenses online gambling only to operators that hold a land-based licence (a casino, an arcade or a betting shop), a "land-based anchor" model that limits the market to established Belgian operators and their online partners, with taxes set regionally. Its player-protection rules include a national exclusion register (EPIS), mandatory identity verification, a weekly deposit limit set by default at a modest level with higher limits subject to checks, a ban on bonuses above a small threshold, and, since 2023 and 2024, an advertising regime that is the strictest in the EU: a general ban on gambling advertising with narrow exceptions, phased through a ban on sponsorship and stadium advertising by 2025 and a prohibition on advertising by professional sports clubs from 2028. Belgium also raised the minimum age for all gambling to 21 in 2024 and prohibited gambling-related loot boxes in video games as gambling in 2018. The Belgian model, land-based anchoring plus a near-total advertising ban plus default deposit limits, is the most restrictive licensed regime in the EU, and its channelisation figures are contested in the same way as the Netherlands'.
The southern pattern
Spain, Italy, France and Portugal licensed early, reformed their advertising rules after public reaction (Spain's 2020 decree, Italy's 2018 ban, France's regulator-supervised volumes), and have all tightened player protection through intensive-player rules, deposit limits and self-exclusion. Their tax structures moved from stakes to revenue where they had started on stakes. Their product scope differs at one point, France's casino prohibition, and their enforcement against unlicensed operators has strengthened through blocking powers and regulator cooperation. Belgium sits at the restrictive end with anchoring and an advertising ban. For an operator, the four southern markets need local product certification, local identity integration, local advertising review and, in Italy, a concession tender; for the industry as a whole, they are the evidence that advertising bans and bonus restrictions arrive in every large market eventually.
What to take from this lesson
Spain licenses through the DGOJ at 20 per cent of revenue, with a 2020 advertising decree (partly annulled in 2024) that banned most broadcast advertising, sponsorship and welcome bonuses, and a 2023 safer-gambling decree. Italy grants concessions through the ADM under a 2024 reform (nine years, seven million euros) and has banned gambling advertising since 2018. France licenses betting and poker through the ANJ, prohibits online casino, and supervises operators' marketing plans directly. Portugal licenses through the SRIJ with a tax reformed in 2020. Belgium anchors online licences to land-based ones, applies default deposit limits, raised the age to 21 and has enacted the EU's strictest advertising ban. The southern pattern is early licensing, advertising reform after backlash, and steadily stricter player protection.