Bonoloto today: result of Thursday, September 10, complementary and refund

In Spain, a lottery like Bonoloto falls under statewide lotteries, whose basic regulation is in Law 13/2011, on the regulation of gambling (BOE Law 13/2011) and its regulatory developments, especially Royal Decrees 1613/2011 and 1614/2011 (technical requirements and licenses and registrations). Additionally, the SELAE framework is completed with its statute approved by royal decree and with subsequent provisions on guarantees, licenses, and responsible gaming.

1. Who can organize a “Bonoloto”

Law 13/2011 expressly reserves statewide lotteries to certain operators designated by law, in practice:

• State Society of Lotteries and State Bets (SELAE).
• ONCE, with a specific regime for its products.

The legal text itself establishes that these lotteries are reserved for those operators and that it is the responsibility of the holder of the Ministry competent in tax matters to authorize their commercialization, setting, among others, the percentage allocated to prizes, the number and conditions of the draws, the rights of participants, and the conditions of advertising and protection of minors.

Therefore, for a Bonoloto-type draw, there is no free access for any company: only SELAE (or, where appropriate, ONCE in its scope) can exploit that type of product as a state lottery. Private operators can only enter non-reserved games through the general licensing regime of Law 13/2011.

2. Enabling title and authorization procedure

Generally, Law 13/2011 subjects gambling activity to the prior obtaining of an enabling title (licenses and authorizations), developed by Royal Decree 1614/2011:

• General and singular licenses for non-reserved games (online casinos, bets, poker, etc.). They are called by ministerial orders with terms of reference that set requirements and award criteria.
• Specific authorization for reserved lottery activities. The royal decree regulates, within its title on authorizations, the procedure for activities subject to reservation, which includes products like Bonoloto.

For a new state lottery draw or a new modality similar to Bonoloto, SELAE must:

• Have the legal designation as a lottery operator (which it already has based on the legal system).
• Promote the corresponding ministerial order of basic gambling regulation, under Law 13/2011, where rules, prize structure, periodicity, etc., are defined.
• Request the marketing authorization from the Ministry/General Directorate for Gambling Regulation (DGOJ), attaching:
  • Product report and game rules.
  • Operational plan and economic forecast.
  • Description of technical systems and sales network.
  • Responsible gaming measures and protection of minors.

3. Solvency and guarantee requirements

Royal Decree 1614/2011 develops the solvency requirements and financial guarantees that operators must provide:

• Accreditation of economic and financial solvency and technical capacity.
• Constitution of guarantees linked to the enabling title (amounts set in annexes and subsequent DGOJ resolutions).
• Detailed regime of gaming accounts, deposits, prize payments, and protection of participants' funds.

4. Technical requirements and draw security

Royal Decree 1613/2011 and the Resolution of October 6, 2014 develop:

• The obligation to have a homologated gaming technical system (central gaming unit, random number generator, internal control systems).
• Requirements for security, traceability, and operation registration, including full registration of bets and transactions.
• Control of payment methods and gateways and a technological contingency plan to guarantee service continuity.
• Identification of participants and control of subjective prohibitions (minors, self-excluded, linked to the operator), with connection to state registries created by Law 13/2011.

5. Consumer protection, minors, and responsible gaming

Law 13/2011 establishes:

• Prohibition of participation of minors and incapacitated persons and other specific groups.
• Creation of access prohibition registries and persons linked to operators.
• Requirements for responsible advertising, subject to authorization and the General Advertising Law.
• Obligations for anti-money laundering prevention, referring to Law 10/2010.

6. Taxation and subsequent control

Title VII of Law 13/2011 regulates the tax on gambling activities and the levy on random combinations, while other regulations set the special tax on prizes of certain lotteries and bets. Compliance is controlled through:

• Supervision and inspection by the DGOJ (or body assuming its powers).
• Maintenance of official registries of licenses, prohibitions, and linked persons.
• Application of the sanctioning regime of Law 13/2011 against infractions or unauthorized gambling.

In summary, a Bonoloto-type draw can only be exploited as a state lottery by SELAE under legal reservation, prior authorization from the competent Ministry, with its own basic regulation, homologated technical systems, sufficient financial guarantees, and subject to strict consumer protection, fraud prevention, and tax compliance rules.

Loterías y Apuestas del Estado, through the State Society of Lotteries and State Bets (SELAE), is the public operator that manages Bonoloto and the rest of the state-owned lotteries. Its powers range from game design and draw organization to managing the sales network and controlling prize payments, under the coverage of Law 13/2011, on gambling regulation, and its own statutes as a public company attached to the Ministry of Finance.

Legal basis and institutional position

Law 13/2011, on gambling regulation, exclusively reserves the exploitation of statewide lotteries to operators designated by the State. This reservation means that no private entity can organize draws like Bonoloto on its own: only the designated public operators, including SELAE, can do so.

Additionally, SELAE is a state commercial company attached to the Ministry of Finance, responsible —as the newspaper Demócrata recalls— for “managing, exploiting, and marketing state-owned lotteries in Spain, including the National Lottery, La Primitiva, Bonoloto, Euromillions, or La Quiniela.” Its statutes, approved by royal decree, detail its functions, but in practice, they boil down to being the exclusive operator of these lotteries and responsible for ensuring compliance with gambling, consumer, and anti-money laundering regulations.

Powers over game design and organization

In a specific game like Bonoloto, SELAE performs several key functions:

• Define the game rules: determines the bet structure (six numbers, complementary number, and refund), the participation method, the minimum ticket amount, and the price per bet (€0.50 per bet, with a minimum of €1 per draw, as described by Demócrata).
• Establish the prize structure: sets the categories (six hits, five plus complementary, five, four, three hits, and refund) and the percentages of the collection allocated to the prize fund and each category.
• Materially organize the draws: schedules the frequency and time of Bonoloto —currently daily draws, usually at 9:30 p.m.— and guarantees the correct holding of the extractions, with the appropriate internal and notarial controls.

Management of results and sales network

SELAE is also responsible for everything that happens before and after the draw:

• Publish official results: in each Bonoloto draw, “it organizes the draw, publishes the official results, and establishes the prize distribution according to the rules of each game,” as explained in a Demócrata article about Bonoloto. These official lists are the only valid reference to determine which bets are winning.
• Manage the commercial network: sets the operating conditions of lottery administrations and points of sale, as well as the sales rules through its own or third-party online channels. This is why lottery associations discuss with SELAE issues such as commissions or the role of digital sales.
• Regulate collection procedures: establishes how smaller prizes are collected (at administrations and authorized points) and larger ones (through collaborating financial entities), and the expiration periods (three months for SELAE game prizes, as Demócrata recalls).

Control of prizes, fraud, and money laundering

The scale of Bonoloto and the set of state lotteries requires SELAE to have very specific control powers:

• Management and auditing of prizes: the Court of Auditors has audited the “control system applied in prize management” of SELAE and, through a parliamentary resolution published in the BOE, urges the company to approve an internal regulation that governs participation requirements and prohibitions in all games, organizes prize payment regulation, and improves documentary control systems and relations with financial entities.
• Prevention of money laundering and fraud: it is required to adapt its manuals and anti-money laundering procedures for prize payments, improve fraud risk detection, and promptly report suspicious operations related to prize collection to the Executive Service of the Commission for the Prevention of Money Laundering.
• Management of unclaimed prizes: Parliament has asked SELAE to detail the destination of unallocated prize amounts from previous years, which shows it also has responsibility over those funds and their application according to regulations.

Summary

In summary, in Bonoloto SELAE acts as the sole operator and public responsible: it designs the game, organizes and holds the draws, manages the physical and online sales network, publishes official results, administers prize payments, and applies specific controls to prevent fraud and money laundering, all under the legal reservation of state lotteries established by Law 13/2011 and the control of the Ministry of Finance, the Court of Auditors, and the General Courts.

The taxation of prizes from lotteries like Bonoloto in Spain is based on a set of state regulations: the Personal Income Tax Law and its regulation, the general gambling regulations, and, very importantly, the special levy regime on prizes from certain lotteries and bets introduced in 2012 and developed by regulation.

1. General framework: Personal Income Tax Law and its Regulation

The starting point is Law 35/2006, of November 28, on Personal Income Tax (BOE-A-2006-20764). This law defines which incomes are subject to PIT and the categories of earnings and capital gains. Prizes obtained in games, raffles, and draws generally fit as capital gains, although in the case of public lotteries and bets or similar, there is a specific treatment via a special levy (see below).

The regulatory development is contained in Royal Decree 439/2007, of March 30, approving the PIT Regulation (BOE-A-2007-6820). The regulation specifies exemptions and management rules and, among other aspects, develops the exemption of certain literary, artistic, and scientific prizes, as well as the treatment of certain prizes in the context of personal income. For prizes from lotteries and bets of public entities, however, the central reference becomes the special levy created in 2012.

2. Special levy on prizes from certain lotteries and bets

The key specific regulation is Law 16/2012, of December 27, on tax measures for the consolidation of public finances (BOE-A-2012-15650). This law introduces the “Special levy on prizes from certain lotteries and bets”, which affects, among others, prizes from:

• Lotteries, Primitiva, Bonoloto, Euromillions, and other games managed by Loterías y Apuestas del Estado.
• Certain draws organized by ONCE.
• Other public or specific non-profit entity games and bets, as established by law.

This special levy is implemented as a fixed-rate tax on the part of the prize exceeding a tax-exempt minimum. Law 16/2012 established the basic regime, and its application has been adjusted through subsequent laws, especially General State Budget laws.

Among these, Law 6/2018, of July 3, on the General State Budget for 2018 (BOE-A-2018-9268) stands out, which modifies various tax aspects and is expressly cited in the regulatory norms related to this levy. Through these budget laws, exemption thresholds (tax-exempt minimum) for lottery and bet prizes subject to the special levy have been revised, among other aspects.

3. Regulatory development of the special levy

The practical management of the special levy on prizes is detailed in several Ministry of Finance orders, which approve declaration models and regulate withholdings:

• Order HAP/70/2013, of January 30, which approves, among others, model 230 (“PIT and Non-Resident Income Tax: withholdings and payments on account of the Special Levy on prizes from certain lotteries and bets; Corporate Tax: withholdings and payments on account on prizes from certain lotteries and bets. Self-assessment”) and model 136 (“PIT and Non-Resident Income Tax. Special Levy on Prizes from certain Lotteries and Bets. Self-assessment”) (BOE-A-2013-952).
• Order HAP/2368/2013, of December 13, which approves model 270 (“Annual summary of withholdings and payments on account. Special Levy on prizes from certain lotteries and bets”) (BOE-A-2013-13228).
• Order HAC/763/2018, of July 10, which modifies, among others, Order HAP/70/2013 and replaces the annex of model 136 to adapt it to changes introduced by Law 6/2018 (BOE-A-2018-10064).

These orders do not create the tax but are essential to understand how withholding is applied at the time of collection (usually by the prize-paying entity itself) and how the levy is declared and paid to the Tax Agency.

4. General gambling regulations and other taxes

Beyond PIT and the special levy on prizes, there is a general regulation on gambling activity that has indirect fiscal impact. Law 13/2011, of May 27, on gambling regulation (BOE-A-2011-9280) establishes, in its Title VII (“Tax regime”), the state tax on gambling activities and the taxation of random combinations for promotional purposes. This tax levies the gambling activity of operators, not directly the player's income, but it is part of the regulatory environment in which draws like Bonoloto, Primitiva, Euromillions, or ONCE games are framed.

5. Summary

In summary, the taxation of Bonoloto prizes and similar draws is mainly based on:

• Law 35/2006 (PIT) and its Regulation, approved by Royal Decree 439/2007, as the general framework for personal income taxation.
• Law 16/2012, which creates the Special Levy on prizes from certain lotteries and bets, with tax-exempt minimums and fixed rate on the excess.
• General State Budget laws, such as Law 6/2018, which update thresholds and some levy parameters.
• Ministerial orders (HAP/70/2013, HAP/2368/2013, HAC/763/2018, among others) that regulate declaration models, withholdings, and self-assessments of the special levy.
• Law 13/2011, on gambling regulation, which configures the tax on gambling activities applicable to operators.

To know the current amounts of the tax-exempt minimum and the levy rate for each fiscal year, it is necessary to consult the updated wording of Law 16/2012 and the successive General State Budget laws, as well as the latest orders modifying models 136 and 270.