Madrid Council approved its Casino Regulations, after receiving a favourable report from the Council of State, which adapts the whole legislation regarding casinos it the region, with the aim to end with the dispersal of regional and local rules. One of the changes is that, from now on, casino managers may be foreigners.

cepresident Ignacio González explained that the regulation has 153 articles and aims to regulate the casino activity in Madrid council, as well as the games that may be practised there in an exclusive way. “The text intends to modernize an obsolete regulation (it was written in the sixties) and will liberalize different aspects of the internal management of these establishments”, he commented.

The new law aims to adapt to the new realities, considering casinos as elements for economic dynamism. Nowadays, the region features two casinos, one in Torrelodones and the other in Aranjuez. They give direct employment to almost 1,500 people as well as 5,000 indirect employments.

The text establishes the services that companies that operate casinos should bring to the public, distinguishing between mandatory services (bar, restaurant, a lounge, a show room) and complementary services (theatre, cinema, convention center, concerts, exhibitions, sport facilities, shops and hotels).

González stressed that this regulations introduce warranties in order to avoid money laundering in the chip redemption as well as the payment of warranties. It also limits gambling activities to casinos, “excluding the current possibility to authorize gambling rooms outside the building”.

With the aim to liberalize aspects that have to do with the internal management, nationality limitations are eliminated, so from now casino managers may be foreigners. Besides, it is not mandatory to have a professional license, but casinos are obliged to have a detailed and updated record of the whole staff.

Madrid Council has a record in order to control the access of those people who do not want to enter to a casino. This way, the registration file has more than 24,000 people which are forbidden to enter to casinos, most of them, due to their own will. Of that number, almost 9,500 are registered in casinos and 14,500 in bingos.