The Portuguese gambling regulator, Serviços de Regulação e Inspeção de Jogos (SRIJ), has initiated a review of the nation’s gambling industry almost two years after it issued the first online sports betting license under the country’s new gambling laws. The regulatory body also said in a Tuesday statement on its website that it was seeking input from industry stakeholders on the state of Portugal’s online gaming and betting market.
The Southern European country adopted its new gambling laws in April 2015, thus regulating the provision of online gambling services by licensed operators. As mentioned above, it was in May 2016 when the first license was issued under the new regulatory framework. French gambling company Betclic Group was the first to enter the newly regulated Portuguese market with a sports betting license.
Generally speaking, Portugal’s new gambling laws were heavily criticized for a number reasons, including the too high tax rate imposed. Licensed sports betting operators are currently taxed at up to 16% on their annual turnover, while casino games operators, including ones offering online poker, are annually contributing up to 30% of their revenues to the country’s coffers.
A number of involved parties, including the Remote Gambling Association, have been calling for a review of Portugal’s gambling laws since the market was opened for licensed operations. However, local regulators and lawmakers have maintained a firm stance that such an evaluation would be conducted two years after the first online gambling license was issued.
In a statement on its official website, SRIJ explained that the market’s assessment has been an ongoing procedure and that it will be concluded before May 2018. As mentioned earlier, the regulatory body also invited licensed operators to voice their opinion on the local market and the way it is regulated. Interested parties will be able to present their input by the end of February.
The announcement comes shortly after it became known that Portugal is gearing up for the official start of the shared online poker liquidity project in the country.
Portugal and Shared Liquidity
SRIJ issued the first online poker license late in 2016. It has not granted another such license, thus leaving PokerStars the sole online poker operator in the nascent market. Here it is also important to note that Portugal’s market is ring-fenced, which means that local players cannot participate in international pools, or at least not for now.
It emerged last week that the country is entering the final stages of preparations to join the shared online poker liquidity network, which launched earlier this month with Franco-Spanish poker tables.
Portugal was one of the four countries that signed the shared liquidity agreement last summer, the other three being France, Spain, and Italy.
PokerStars was the first operator to launch shared poker tables under that agreement. In a recent interview with Poker Industry PRO, Severin Rasset,Director of Poker Innovation and Operations at the poker operator, said that they hope for a Q2 launch of shared tables in Portugal.
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