The Portuguese government is endeavoring to review the gambling laws in the country by putting forward a number of proposed changes to laws and regulations for the country’s online gambling market.
The online gambling market was officially opened for international operators in the summer of 2016 when it’s first online gambling license was issued after being regulated in the Iberian country in 2015.
Betting industry entrepreneur Ivo Doroteia, revealed that the State Budget Proposal includes amending the law allowing the country’s licensed operators to share their gambling platform in order to provide and promote online games to players who are registered with different sites in the country.
A proposal has also been put forward by the government for operators to provide online gaming between players registered with Portuguese sites and platforms in other regulated countries where liquidity sharing is also allowed.
The proposed amendments will now apply to Sports Betting and not only to poker – which is a portion of the market that will probably be expanding through a liquidity sharing deal with Spain, Italy and France.
Operators wishing to participate in sharing activities will face heavy sanctions if they do not abide by new rules.
The government has also put forward proposed changes to the special online gambling tax on fixed-odds sports betting and how this is allocated.
According to the State Budget Proposal, the proposed changes will see the amount of tax for the State increasing from 2.28% to 3.17% and the allocation for the ministry responsible for promoting social policies increasing from 34.52% to 48.05%.
