In a bid to combat addiction, the Spanish government has opened the door for AWPs to have a system of identification for players before a game is started.
Stakes in AWP machines in Spain totalled €11bn in 2010, of which €3bn was retained by the machines. In the three years previous to that, losses had increased by seven per cent per annum while the turnover had actually decreased by a total of 10 per cent.
The Spanish government, recognising that responsibility for governance of machines is with the 17 semi-autonomous regions, has however noted that there is no control or supervision that will help to avoid addiction. It is “technically possible” to have an ID check before a game begins to ensure that the player is over the minimum age and has not registered in a central register to ban games access.
