Spain launchs a a common roadmap  to request the re-opening of the private land-based gaming and its recovery post-Covid 19

The sectoral table, represented by ANESAR, ASESFAM, CEJ, CEJUEGO, Club de Convergentes, COFAR, FEMARA, FEJBA and Platform for Sustainable Gaming, continues to work on the plan to recover economic and labor activity in the private land-based gaming sector after confinement.

The idea is that this document circulates through all associative channels so that it is the basis or argument of all, and provides a common position when requesting from the different administrations the measures to achieve a prompt re-opening of the activity and the sector recovery. The different associations have finalized the proposals announced a few days ago with the priority objective of reactivating the activity as soon as possible and being able to guarantee the safety of both workers and customers.

In addition to the measures previously announced such as giving workers the necessary equipment, adapting the reception and control areas or temporarily reducing the current capacity of the establishments, there are other proposals made to guarantee the safety of the activity.

Thus, among the proposals are: having elements of prevention and health security available to customers, guaranteeing social distancing in users, implementing hygiene and disinfection protocols, carrying out actions to guarantee the safety of handling money in cash and facilitate different forms of payment within the establishments.

Regarding labor and financial measures, the following have been proposed: expansion of the lines of guarantees approved by the Government, as well as streamlining and flexibility of requirements and concession criteria, without excluding sectors of economic activity. It has also been considered necessary that as of the resumption of the activity, the temporary employment regulation records processed by the cessation of activity, can be made compatible with labor formulas that allow payrolls to be adapted to the real needs of the companies.

On the other hand, in fiscal matters, the sectorial table has agreed to transmit to the different State administrations the need to incorporate the gaming sector as one more on which to support the strategy of economic recovery and employment in the country. Also, the inclusion of the sector within all the aid plans that the government is presenting without distinction, neither by activity nor by company size. This proposal joins those previously reported as the suspension of the payment of taxes such as VAT, Personal Income Tax or Social Security contributions and the exemption from the IAE of 2020, applying the zero quota of rule 15 of Royal Legislative Decree 1175/1990.

In the autonomous community, it has been proposed to allow deferrals and divisions of the game tax rates that companies may request for this reason, and to exempt interest and other surcharges, in order to make the requirements for obtaining them more flexible.
Also in the Autonomous Communities it is proposed to suspend: the obligation to submit self-assessments, the payment of tax rates and the accrual of machine gambling fees or to rebate 100% if it has accrued, from the start of the declaration of the alarm status up to 30 days after the restart of the activity. Likewise, they request a 50% bonus on the current rates for each type of game (machines, bingos, casinos, bets, etc.) for the remainder of 2020.

The different associations believe it necessary to paralyze the Administrative Laws in process or pending in the CCAA and Central Government.Also have pointed out: “It doesn't make sense to regulate with the idea of a pre-COVID-19 scenario when the reality that we are going to find will be diametrically different. We request to postpone them until the beginning of 2021. That a moratorium of at least one year be decreed for the recent regulatory processes that have started almost all the Autonomous Communities, until we have a stable scenario for the Country and the sector.”

The sector table recalls that the main goal of these proposals is not to jeopardize employment, which is why it believes it is necessary for administrations to study and analyze together with the sector the economic and labor impact of COVID-19.