Spanish Passion

What is Spanish Passion?

It found Lalabet’s operators and directors had acted unlawfully by targeting Dutch players and ordered them to cease activities and provide detailed ownership and shareholder information.

The court also explored potential liabilities for trust administrators and local representatives who facilitate illegal gambling sites. 

While it did not find Curaçao-based trust firm DECC and its directors liable in this case, the ruling signalled that closer scrutiny of such intermediaries could unfold.

How to play Spanish Passion

The proposed amendments include provisions on beneficial ownership, financial and controlling interests, fit-and-proper-person assessments and know-your-customer requirements. They would also require Authority approval for the acquisition of a direct or indirect financial or controlling interest of 5% or more, unless a lower threshold is prescribed.

The bill would require most licence holders to link gambling machines and devices installed on their premises to the Gambling Authority’s statutory monitoring system. Casino and bingo licence holders would be required to install their own monitoring systems instead.

The bill would increase the maximum sanction for contravening Section 87(1) to a P100,000 fine, imprisonment for up to five years, or both.

About Spanish Passion

The ruling preserved a revenue measure the city says was designed to bring in up to €1 million according to the court’s own summary.

Andreas Braun, owner of four arcades in Wiesbaden, filed an objection and constitutional complaint against the tax rate in April last year according to local reporting. He argued that the tax rise had provided a ‘strangling’ effect to business and that it consumed operator profits.

According to a high court ruling from over a decade ago, the tax rise cannot be allowed to rise to the point of ‘consuming livelihoods’.