Spanish gambling tax under investigation

We have recently had a number of articles pointing out that various countries within the EU are not conforming to the rules for online gambling that were set up to ensure free and fair trading between member states. Most of the non conformances have centred around the issues of licenses and/or having a requirement to have a base in the country but now it is Spain’s turn but in their case it is a tax issue. As the rules now stand Spanish people who win money on lotteries and other games that are offered by some domestic based companies are not required to pay tax on those winnings but if it is won on a foreign based company tax has to be paid. The European Court of Justice (ECJ) has ruled that this is unjustly biased in favour of domestic operators. The Spanish Government argues that the tax is not levied based upon the country of origin but on whether the company is a charitable organisation or not and it is therefore a matter of social policy; stating that winnings from some Spanish companies are also liable to tax. The ECJ says that this same ruling should be applicable to overseas companies and that justifying the tax regime on the basis of social policy is contradictory as lotteries encourage gambling. It is not decided where this will go from here.