On January 1st, 2012 Spain will join the likes of countries like France and Italy and create their own country-wide online poker network, and no less than 16 online poker sites have already begun the process of applying for a Spanish license (at an initial cost of €2 million) according to egrmagazine.com.

According to the article, the usual suspects have all filed for a Spanish license, including three of the largest online poker rooms/networks, PokerStars, 888 Poker, and bwin.party (you can find reviews of these rooms and many more at www.cardschat.com). Smaller operators may avoid the market due to the 25% tax that will be levied on all online poker rooms in Spain (not to mention the initial €2 million license fee) considering that Spain is not historically thought of as a poker hotspot.

A similar high-tax rate in France caused sites to jack-up the rake, which led to an online sit-in by French online poker players.

Interestingly, in a country that has quite favorable gambling laws for brick & mortar casinos, the new legislation does not permit casino games like slots or video poker, and also outlaws the very popular Spanish past-time of sports-betting –perhaps in an effort to protect existing brick & mortar providers of these services.

Two other European countries, Germany and Denmark, are in the midst of passing similar legislation: Germany will of course attract just about every online poker operator with their huge population base and with a German having won the 2011 World Series of Poker, the country is likely to experience a major poker boom.

Tags: Cardschat, Casino Games, European Countries, January 1st, Midst, Mortar, New Legislation, Online Poker Rooms, Online Poker sites, Outlaws, Poker Network, poker players, Population Base, Rake, Slots Poker, Tax Rate, Usual Suspects, Video Poker, world series, World Series of Poker

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