Spain's Directorate General for the Regulation of Gambling (DGOJ) and public digital agency Red.es have established a framework for identifying and addressing potentially problematic .es domains connected to gambling and betting.
The agreement, published in Spain's Official State Gazette on 5 October, establishes information-sharing arrangements between the two bodies. Red.es manages Spain's .es country-code domain registry, while the DGOJ regulates and supervises state-level gambling activity.
Under the framework, Red.es will provide information on .es domains that could conflict with legitimate gambling-related names. The DGOJ will maintain information on licensed gambling businesses and relevant sector terminology, allowing both organisations to analyse registrations for potential misuse.
The DGOJ will also receive access to the registry's WHOIS database, including information covering active domains, new registrations and data associated with individual .es domain names. Red.es will conduct analysis and segmentation based on criteria supplied by the regulator.
The agreement identifies phishing, impersonation, misleading websites and unauthorised gambling as risks associated with malicious domain registrations. Red.es already monitors gambling-related domains and maintains procedures for detecting registrations containing potentially conflicting or illegal terms.
The initiative extends the DGOJ's existing enforcement framework for unlicensed online gambling. Under Spain's Gambling Act, the regulator can pursue unauthorised gambling targeting the Spanish market and require service providers to supply information or cease services provided to unlicensed operators.
That enforcement activity has included website blocking. In May 2026, the DGOJ opened proceedings against prediction-market platforms Polymarket and Kalshi and ordered their websites to be blocked in Spain while the cases were considered.
The Red.es agreement will run for four years from its registration in the relevant state electronic register, with the possibility of an extension for up to another four years. It carries no direct financial consideration between the organisations.
In September, the DGOJ published updated technical requirements for its Joint Deposit Limits System, replacing the June specification and introducing changes covering authentication, transaction handling and data retention. The wider system is scheduled to become applicable from 25 March 2027.
Licensed online gambling operators in Spain are required to use a .es domain, with the DGOJ advising players to check the domain and authorised gambling logo when assessing whether a site is licensed
