This company was one of the winning bidders for the first licences to operate sporting bets in the Autonomous Community of Madrid, from April 2008. Intralot, which already has 11 betting spaces together with agreements for amusement arcades and bingo halls, is seeking to offer a new leisure and entertainment option to those over 18 years of age wishing to predict the results of a long list of sporting events.  As regards on-line betting, the sports betting house Begawin has recently started offering its services in Spain, via the website www.begawin.com. The company holds a licence in the Republic of Malta.

In addition to on-line betting and gaming, Begawin is offering the possibility of placing bets from a mobile phone once the application available on its website has been downloaded. The Spanish firm International Mobile Sportsbook Company (IMSC) has also created a platform for placing bets from a mobile phone. Operating under the trade name of Bettymovil, its objective is to expand into other European countries later. IMSC is in partnership with Movistar, with whom it has underwritten a commercial agreement.

Bettymovil has been more than 18 months in development, the greatest difficulty being that of obtaining a standard application for advanced systems that is compatible with the mobile operating systems that exist at the present time, of which there are more than 20, yet at the same time one that places no technical limitation on the number of users.

...while other forms of gaming feel the crunch

It is not certain that the credit crunch is encouraging gaming. At least, this is not the case in the private sector which controls casinos, bingo halls and vending machines. At the annual dinner of the Europer association, representing the operators of amusement machines in Catalonia, its president Albert Sola, affirmed that

"2008 had been a difficult year economically speaking, and this difficulty is reflected in the accounts of the companies, that have seen a fall of 5% in their takings". In addition Albert Sola emphasized that "the prediction is that 2009 will not be a good year, for which reason it is necessary to rely on the collaboration of the administration and to ask for measures to be introduced to allow the expansion of the number of points at which machines can be installed, especially in those premises that, although they are not bars, offer meals and do have a bar".

Likewise he requested that the administration acts against the unregulated games such as on-line gaming, which he describes as "unfair competition which they advertise illegally and on which they do not pay taxes, added to which they do not give guarantees to the users". For their part, the Galician companies have also noticed a reduction in the final part of the year, that has seen their takings decrease by between 17% and 18%. And when translated into euros this could amount to around 19 million, when one considers that in 2007 about 150 million euros were spent in gaming establishments in Galicia.

The president of the Association of Galician Bingo Halls, José Antonio Iglesias, quantifies the fall up to October at 18%. "It is true that there may be a boost from the lottery, from the games with millionaire prizes, but our business rests on the habits of the people, and those habits do not change. What is happening is that people are gambling less".

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