Reports have emerged that the Portuguese gambling regulator – Serviço de Regulação e Inspeção de Jogos (SRIJ), will not start issuing online poker licenses before November 2016. The country regulated its online gambling market last year but no great progress towards the introduction of licensed iGaming options to local players has been made ever since.
In May, Betclic has become the first provider of sports betting options to be allowed to operate under a .pt domain. Back then, SRIJ said that more licenses would be issued very soon. However, no such licenses have been granted since then and, therefore, no other operators have launched their offering to Portuguese gambling customers.
While it is still unknown why exactly the country’s gambling regulator has not licensed other online sports betting companies yet, people with knowledge of the matter have suggested that the delay in the introduction of online poker was due to issues related to shared liquidity.
Late last year, it became clear that the country’s online poker market would be barred from sharing liquidity with other regulated markets. However, SRIJ seemed to have changed its stance on the matter as in April it revealed that international liquidity may eventually be permitted. Yet, the regulator pointed out that no B2B licenses allowing for shared liquidity between online poker operators on a single network would be issued.
Last week, Associação Nacional de Apostadores Online (ANAon), known to be the national association of online players, announced that it has recently discussed shared liquidity with the country’s gambling regulator. ANAon representatives also revealed that as a result, SRIJ is currently reviewing two proposals related to the legalization of online poker in the country, with one of those including provisions for the permission of shared liquidity.
When gambling regulators choose a proposal to proceed with, it will then be submitted to the European Commission for further consideration. Such proposals are reviewed over a three-month period. In other words, local players will not be able to play online poker before November 2016.
Last year, a number of big online poker operators, including PokerStars, left the Portuguese market hoping that they would soon be able to return to a regulated online gambling environment. As it seems, they will have to wait for a little longer.
