What the RGIAJ is
The Registro General de Interdicciones de Acceso al Juego is Spain’s national register of people barred from gambling, run by the gambling regulator (DGOJ). Once you register, every gambling website and app licensed in Spain must refuse you access. It also blocks you from in-person lotteries where ID is checked.
It is the most effective barrier there is, for a simple reason: once it is done, it no longer depends on your willpower at the worst moment.
How to register, step by step
- Online. Go to the DGOJ electronic office from the RGIAJ page and identify yourself with a digital certificate or electronic ID card. Fill in the application and submit it.
- On your phone. The “DNIe autoprohibidos” Android app lets you do it with a version 3.0 Spanish ID card and a phone with NFC.
- In person or by post. Download the form from the same page and hand it in at any public registry office, a post office or a police station. From abroad, at a Spanish embassy or consulate.
- Do the same in your region. For arcades, bingo halls and casinos, also join your region’s register of barred people. Here is the procedure for each one.
Outside Spain, the equivalents are national schemes such as GAMSTOP in the UK, or state self-exclusion programmes in the US.
What it does not cover
Sites without a Spanish licence do not check the register. Nor do private games or bets between friends. That is why the RGIAJ works best as the first of several layers: a blocker on your devices, a payment block at your bank and someone you trust. They are all in How do you block betting and online gambling?