The Provincial Council of Sevilla (Diputación de Sevilla) requested the Junta de Andaluzia, an institution in which the regional government is organized, that each city can regulate the number of bookmakers and live gaming rooms authorized to operate locally.
The plenary session of the Seville Provincial Council recently approved a motion indicated by the political organization ‘Adelante’, through which it forces the regional government to allow each city to define “urban limitations” to regulate the market.
The motion suggests “giving autonomy to the Andalusian city councils so that they can carry out all administrative procedures that they consider useful to prevent the spread of gambling addiction, including the introduction of urban limitations on the implementation of bookmakers in the vicinity of areas frequented by children , teenagers and young people, as educational, cultural, sports or youth centers ”.
Controversy involving bookmakers in the Sevilla region
The request comes amid a controversial moment, because, last year, the Plenary of the City Council of Cadiz released the modification of article 3.4.11 of the General Plan of Urbanism (PGOU) to restrict the installation of bookmakers.
In return, the Junta de Andalucía opted to appeal to the Andalusian Superior Court of Justice (TSJA) to prevent each city from gaining autonomy to create its own restrictions.
Because of this, the mayor of the municipality of Alcalá de Guadaíra, Ana Isabel Jiménez, together with the parliamentarian and secretary general of the PSOE party in Seville, Verónica Pérez, took to the Chamber a request for the Board to publicly explain why it intends to ban these municipal limitations on the betting segment.
In addition, throughout the Commission on Disability in Andalusia, the Spanish political parties Pode and the PSOE denounced that the Junta de Andalucía intended to take advantage, regardless of the welfare of Spanish citizens.
