Spain Puts Unverified Gambling Customers' Winnings on a Six-Month Clock

^{Madrid, where Spain's gambling regulator DGOJ enforces the country's online gambling rules. (Photo: Barcex / Wikimedia Commons)}

Spanish online gambling customers who cannot prove they own the payment method linked to their account will have their winnings frozen for up to six months under Royal Decree 813/2026, which amends the country's gambling and anti-money-laundering rules.

The decree, dated 7 October and published in Spain's official gazette, the Boletín Oficial del Estado (BOE), on 10 October, rewrites Article 21 of the gambling payments regulation so that operators must verify the person who owns a payment method used for deposits and withdrawals is the same person registered to the gambling account. It follows an earlier push by Spanish regulators for stricter identity checks across the gambling sector, and the government said this latest change is designed to avoid "undesired effects" produced by the current rules.

Six-Month Window Before Accounts Face Closure

Existing customers can keep depositing and playing while operators carry out the checks, but the decree's transitional provisions state those customers "may not withdraw the winnings they have obtained" until their payment method is verified — a restriction with echoes of the delays already discussed in Casinos.com's guide to why online casino withdrawals can take longer than expected. Accounts that still lack verified ownership once the six-month transition ends must be closed, with any remaining balance, including withheld winnings, returned subject to anti-money-laundering and counter-terrorism-financing checks.

Operators must also report customer activations and account closures to the Directorate General for Gambling Regulation (DGOJ), Spain's gambling regulator, as part of the rollout. The DGOJ has tightened payment and identity rules repeatedly in recent years as part of a broader effort to curb underage access and unlicensed play, and the new ownership-verification requirement adds another layer to that enforcement framework.

Wider Identity-Check Regime Phases In Over 18 Months

The decree also updates the regulation implementing Spain's anti-money-laundering law, Law 10/2010, lowering the threshold at which operators must formally identify customers for lottery and other game prize payouts to €2,500 or more, down from the general €1,000 threshold applied to most business relationships. Separate requirements covering electronic identification methods and data retention take effect 18 months after publication, giving operators a longer runway to update the systems involved. The staggered timeline reflects the scale of the technical changes required, since payment-ownership verification typically involves cross-checking bank account holder names or card details against the identity documents already on file for each gambling account.

"The first [transitional provision] aims to establish a six-month period for both gambling operators and players themselves to undertake the technical and operational adaptations necessary to comply with the new method of identity accreditation introduced in Article 21," the decree states.

Operators now face a near-term deadline of 28 October, when the decree takes effect, to begin the ownership checks, while juggling the separate six-month and 18-month compliance windows that follow. Spain's National Identity Document, the DNI, is recognised in both physical and digital formats for the purposes of the new verification regime. The full text of Royal Decree 813/2026 is published on the BOE's website.