A shut-down for on line gambling? The Madrid mercantile court confirms its closing down of unlicensed gambling sites

Madrid Mercantile Court no. 10 has recently issued a Court Order ratifying its decision closing down the online websites miapuesta. com and miapuesta.es, belonging to the British company Sportingbet. Under article 733.2 of the Spanish Civil Procedural Law, Sportingbet had challenged the Court’s judgment of December 15, 2011 which ordered the company to cease its online gambling activities because the company lacked a licence.
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This new Court Order ratified its decision that unlicensed online gambling websites violate the legislation currently in force: “any gambling and betting activity that does not have prior administrative authorisation is unquestionably prohibited”. However this Order either ignores or fails to apply the temporary provision of the Gambling Regulation Law which provides that companies offering online gambling, or advertising the same, could continue to operate until they obtain the appropriate license, without being penalised for being unlicensed (eighth temporary provision, the term of which was extended to 30 June 2012 , or until the establishment of a procedure for granting licenses, by Royal Decree 20/2011, of December 30).