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The Ministry of Social Rights, Consumer Affairs and Agenda 2030 has fined a company €750,000 for running a luxury car raffle without the authorisation required by Spanish gambling law, in a case linked to a well-known Murcian YouTuber.

 

The firm, EBR Management SLU, was found to have committed a very serious offence under the Gambling Regulation Act. Although the ministry didn't name the YouTuber, the details match a raffle run by TheGrefg, the alias of David Cánovas from Alhama de Murcia, whose official rules named the company.

 

According to the ministry, the raffle ran from December 24, 2024 to January 6, 2025 on the company's website, which was open to participants using Spanish IP addresses. It was promoted on the social media accounts of the influencer, who lives in Andorra, and the car on offer belonged to him.

 

Entries came in the form of a digital wallpaper that EBR sold for €1, with each of the 376,850 purchases giving the buyer one chance to win a vehicle valued at more than €75,000 at the time, although its owner said it had cost €120,000.

 

Sources within the agency explained that the company never applied for the authorisation the Gambling Act requires. The Directorate General for Gambling Regulation opened disciplinary proceedings after preliminary investigations, considering the company's actions a very serious infringement under Article 39(a) of the act, and the Directorate General for Consumer Affairs then imposed the €750,000 fine.

 

EBR appealed, but the ministry dismissed the appeal. It maintained that the activity was a raffle without the necessary authorisation and not a random draw for advertising or promotional purposes, as the company claimed. It also refused to reduce the penalty, as the original calculation already included a reduction that could have been applied.

 

 

Image: The Grefg / YouTube