Portugal’s regulated online gambling market is among Europe’s youngest ones. It was in April 2015 when the country’s government introduced a new gambling regulatory regime that made it possible for international operators to apply for a license from the local regulator Serviço de Regulação e Inspeção de Jogos (SRIJ).
While the new gambling law was generally welcomed by EU authorities, it contained certain provisions that were met with less enthusiasm by gambling companies and other related parties. Taxation is one of the most important matters that require to be treated with extra attention when a new iGaming market is regulated. In other words, if there are multiple factors that determine the profitability of one market or another, taxation ranks as a top factor.
Portugal’s newly regulated market has a turnover tax regime that increases with turnover to a maximum of 16% for sports betting operations and to 30% for casino services. It can be said that in terms of taxation, turnover as a tax base is among operators’ worst nightmares in a regulated gambling environment.
Precisely two years after Portugal regulated its market and around a year after first licenses were granted by SRIJ, there are only six licensed operators to provide their products to local customers, with PokerStars being one of those.
The Remote Gambling Association (RGA), a trade association of some of the world’s largest Internet gambling companies, has recently urged a review of Portugal’s iGaming regulations, arguing that the turnover tax has turned the local market into a highly unattractive one. The RGA has pointed to the fact that there are very few operators to have received licenses and that there had been only 19 operators to have applied for such licenses.
The association believes that six operators, of which only two sports betting ones, cannot channel enough customers and produce enough turnover and tax. Portugal regulating its market was seen as an opportunity for the country to generate additional tax revenue and boost its economy. According to the RGA, it may have failed to achieve that but certain amendments in its existing gambling law, particularly ones concerned with taxation, may eventually give the market the luster it has been seeking after.
Portugal’s Place in the Ongoing Shared Online Poker Liquidity Talks
As Casino News Daily reported earlier this week, shared online poker liquidity discussions are entering the home straight and first poker networks may be created by the end of the year. Portugal, as one of the ring-fenced European poker markets, has been an active participant in the negotiations, with France, Italy, Spain, and the UK being the other countries involved in the endeavor.
The initiative was launched with the aim for Europe’s regulated, but ring-fenced, poker markets to be given a boost, after they have been underperforming for the past several years. Here it is important to note that Portugal’s market is actually too immature to be assessed whether it is a profitable or unprofitable one. Yet, it seems that regulators are open to new opportunities in order to avoid mistakes made by their counterparts in the above-mentioned countries.
