Spain Tightens Payment Controls for Online Gambling Operators, with a Six-Month Transition to April 28, 2027

Spain’s BOE has published Real Decreto 813/2026, and the message for online betting and casino operators is straightforward: the account holder and the payment method holder must be the same person. That applies to both deposits and withdrawals, which means PSPs and acquirers serving Spanish gaming need to treat payment-owner checks as part of the flow, not a nice-to-have at the back end.

1. Real Decreto 813/2026 was published in the Boletín Oficial del Estado (BOE) on October 8, and it amends article 21.2 of the regulation implementing Law 10/2010 on anti-money laundering and counter-terrorist financing. The stated aim is to strengthen identification controls in digital transactions and prevent the misuse of third-party payment instruments.
2. The new rule goes beyond the usual identity checks already used by operators, such as verification of the DNI or NIE. Now each card, bank account, or payment gateway must be verified as belonging to the player who owns the gaming account. In practice, a verified user profile is no longer enough if the payout rail belongs to someone else.
3. The regulation takes effect on October 28, 2026, twenty days after publication. For users already registered, Spain has set a six-month transition period ending on April 28, 2027, during which operators must update their technology and players can regularize their payment methods.
4. During that transition, existing players may continue depositing and placing bets with their current payment methods, but they cannot withdraw winnings or balance until the platform confirms that the destination payment method is in the user’s name. That is the operational pinch point for PSPs: deposits may keep moving, but withdrawals can get stuck on ownership checks.
5. If the user has not proven ownership of the payment method by April 28, 2027, the betting operator may terminate the contract unilaterally and must notify the Dirección General de Ordenación del Juego (DGOJ). The termination does not mean forfeiture of funds: the operator must return the full balance, including winnings held during the transition period, within the legal framework for anti-money laundering and counter-terrorist financing.

The part that matters most for high-risk payments is that Spain is turning payment-method ownership into a formal compliance control for online gambling. For operators, that means platform checks, payout blocking logic, and customer support load; for PSPs and acquiring partners, it means fewer edge cases around third-party cards and accounts, and more pressure to make ownership verification work cleanly before withdrawals hit a wall.