LISBON:Portugal’s government will review the country’s gambling laws in 2018, local media reported on Friday. The Iberian country regulated its online gambling market in 2015 and officially opened it for international operators in the summer of 2016, when the first online gambling license was issued.
Late last week, Portuguese lawmakers presented the budget plan for 2018. Among a number of other provisions, the plan also contains proposed amendments to the country’s Online Gambling Law. These are mostly concerned with the legalization of national and international liquidity for different iGaming and betting services.
Earlier this year, Portugal entered into a shared online poker liquidity agreement with France, Italy, and France. Said agreement will allow the country to merge its online poker player pool with those the other participating country.
Under the proposed amendments to the nation’s existing gambling laws, Portugal will be able to enter similar agreements for other online gambling activities. In other words, Portugal-facing operators , both gaming and sports betting, will be able to share their customer pools with fellow brands that are licensed by the local gambling regulator, Serviço de Regulação e Inspeção de Jogos (SRIJ). What is more, Portugal-licensed operators will be able to merge their Portuguese player pools with the player pools in other regulated jurisdictions these hold licenses from.
