Portugal proposes changes to online gaming regulations

The Portuguese government has put forward a number of proposed changes to laws and regulations for the country’s online gambling market.

Detailed in a LinkedIn post by betting industry entrepreneur Ivo Doroteia, the State Budget Proposal includes amending the law to allow licensed operators in the country to share their gambling platform to provide and promote online games to players registered with different sites in the country.

The government has also put forward a proposal for operators to provide online gaming between players registered with Portuguese sites and platforms in other regulated countries where liquidity sharing is allowed.

The proposed amendments will not only apply to poker, a section of the market that already looks set to expand through a liquidity sharing deal with France, Italy and Spain, but also sports betting.

Operators that wish to take part in sharing activities must abide by new rules, or face heavy sanctions.

Meanwhile, the government has also put forward proposed changes to online gaming tax in the country, specifically the special online gambling tax on fixed-odds sports betting and how this is allocated.

Cited in the State Budget Proposal, the proposed changes include increasing the amount of tax for the State from 2.28% to 3.17%, and boosting the allocation for the ministry responsible for promoting social policies from 34.52% to 48.05%.

Elsewhere, the ministry responsible for the promotion of national health policy measures could have its allocation boosted from 16.44% to 22.88%; the ministry responsible for promoting Home Affairs policies from 2.76 to 5.24%; and the ministry responsible for the national youth and sport policy from just 1.49% to 20.66%.