Portugal issues seventh igaming licence
The Portuguese regulator Serviço de Regulação e Inspeção de Jogos has issued its seventh licence to offer igaming in the EU country, to Figueira Company Praia to provide sports betting via the CasinoPortugal.pt website.
Figueira Company Praia is the holder of only the third licence issued for fixed-odds online sports betting in Portugal, alongside Betclic and Bet.pt.
Sports betting is taxed at a prohibitive 8-16% of turnover, and in 2015 was subject to a State Aid filing with the EU by the Remote Gambling Association challenging the Portuguese betting tax as breaking EU trade rules.
Betclic.pt and Bet.pt are among the four sites licensed by the Gambling Inspection and Regulation Service to offer online casino, the others being PokerStars.pt and EstorilSolcasinos.pt, the latter a JV between GAMING1 and Estoril Sol, the Portuguese branch of Asia’s Stanley Ho Group.
Casino and poker are taxed at between 15% and 30% of gross gaming revenue, with this capped once annual income reaches €10m.
PokerStars is the only holder of a dot.pt online poker licence, offering tournaments and hold 'em and Omaha cash variants to Portuguese players.
Five companies have now been licensed for the dot.pt market since Betclic received the first permit in May of last year.
The Portuguese igaming market generated €82.2m ($92.1m) in revenue in the 10-month period from late May 2016 through to March 31, 2017, the regulator announced in March.
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