A court in Spain ruled this week that PokerStars has operated legally in the country since it began offering its services in 2001.

Spanish gambling giant Codere claimed that PokerStars operated unlawfully prior to the country’s new gambling regulation in June 2012. Codere argued that online gambling operators were negatively impacting the firm’s land-based operations by offering services to Spanish gamblers without state authorization.

However, according to a press release issued by PokerStars on Friday, a Barcelona court affirmed PokerStars’ position that it operated lawfully in the country prior to June 2012 because “the lack of regulation meant that there was no relevant law preventing such activity.”

“This ruling confirms the legal advice we have been given and which we have followed in Spain for years,” said Paul Telford, group general counsel for PokerStars. “We are very pleased the court agreed with our position and look forward to continuing to provide our licensed poker services as the leading brand in the Spanish market.”

“The Barcelona court judgment is absolutely clear in its conclusion that PokerStars has always operated in Spain according to the law,” added Antonio Vázquez-Guillén, partner at Allen & Overy, PokerStars’ counsel for the case. “We are very happy with this outcome. It clarifies a question that, in our view, should never have been brought to a Court of Justice.”

PokerStars currently operates www.pokerstars.es under a specific online gaming license issued by the Spanish Gambling Commission in June. According to PokerScout.com, pokerStars.es is dominating the Spanish poker market, controlling nearly 70 percent of the real-money traffic since the new market opened.

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On Thursday, MGM Resorts International became the latest operator in Nevada to gain approval for a real-money online poker site.

During a hearing with the Nevada Gaming Commission, the gaming giant was approved for licensure as an operator of interactive gaming systems in Nevada. The license will allow MGM to offer bwin.party’s poker platform to Nevada residents once bwin.party receives its own license as a service provider in the Silver State.

MGM Online is expected to launch a free-play online poker site in early 2013 in preparation for its real-money venture.

Last October, MGM partnered with bwin.party and Boyd Gaming ahead of legalized gambling. Under the terms of the arrangement, bwin.party will own 65 percent of the company for providing and maintaining the software for both gaming companies. MGM will hold 25 percent ownership and Boyd will own 10 percent.

Bwin.party has already submitted a license application as a service provider in Nevada but isn’t likely to meet with gaming regulators until next year. According to the Las Vegas Review-Journal’s Howard Stutz, though, the NGC made it clear in Thursday’s meeting that bwin.party “isn’t a guaranteed approval” for a license in Nevada.

PartyGaming, half of the bwin.party gaming conglomerate, exited the U.S. market in 2006 following passage of the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA). The company later admitted to violating U.S. laws by targeting its citizens for illegal transactions and paid a $105 million penalty to the U.S. government as part of a nonprosecution agreement.

Bwin.party made headlines this week when co-CEO Norbert Teufelberger was detained in Belgium. Teufelberger was taken in for questioning regarding bwin.party’s continued presence in the country despite lacking the necessary licenses. The Belgium Gambling Commission believes that bwin.party has been in breach of the country’s gambling legislation, but bwin.party issued a statement this week saying that the company is “acting and has always acted in compliance with applicable laws.”

If bwin.party is rejected for license approval in Nevada, MGM would be forced to look elsewhere for a service provider.

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