Playtech pulling TitanBet from Spain’s online gambling market
As of September 14, online gaming platform provider Playtech is pulling the TitanBet brand from Spain's restricted market.
Online betting partner Legalbet announced last week that TitanBet.es had told its customers that it was set to close as of September 14. No new customers will be able to register with the platform, and as of September 2, it will stop accepting new deposits from current customers.
The website has suggested that customers delete their account balance by September 14, but customers who struggle to clean up their accounts by that date, can still access their funds by calling the customer service department of TitanBet. TitanBet did not explain what contributed to its decision to leave the regulated online gaming market in Spain.
It seems to have been a fairly recent move, as the platform extended its Spanish license for another five years in February. The platform was among the first to file, when Spain started its controlled business almost a decade ago.
Spain has recently foreseen restrictive new restrictions on online gaming ads and sponsorship operations, prompting strong complaints from internet operators with local licenses. The latest intention is for the new rules to come into force in October. Before these new guidelines kick in, it remains to be seen if any other operators intend to hurry TitanBet to the exits.
Playtech has still not fully left the Spanish market as it recently signed an agreement to supply its live roulette game to the Spanish-licensed division of the company Flutter Entertainment's Betfair.
Melilla E-payment Investigation
Playtech was one of the softwares that set up a subsidiary in the Spanish enclave of Ceuta promising a tax rate on online gaming that is half the 20% levied on businesses operating in Spain.
Spain's National Intelligence Center (CNI) is reportedly probing the online gambling industry in Ceuta and its sister enclave Melilla as well as security services in neighboring Morocco for potentially acting as a gateway for payments to foreign agents.
An article in El Español said the CNI opened its investigation after a Moroccan businessman arrived in Melilla to earn €50k on an unidentified gaming platform, that he said he won. It is claimed that Moroccan intelligence grew skeptical, because of the man's obvious lack of any actual gambling activity background.
The intelligence services reportedly believe that the €50k was payment for transferring information to an undisclosed Turkish corporation, likely connected to plans to develop a luxury tourism project in Morocco's Nador region.
