The owner of the world’s largest online poker site has announced that it soon may enter Portugal’s new online gaming market.
CEO Rafi Ashkenazi, the boss of Amaya which is the Canadian company that owns PokerStars, made the announcement to analysts, saying he was waiting for final regulatory approval to launch an online poker operation in Portugal.
If approval is forthcoming from the Portuguese government, this would make PokerStars the only licensed and legal online poker operator in the country.
In April 2015, Portugal moved to end its State monopoly of the gaming market and invited operators to apply for licenses. So far the Serviço de Regulação e Inspeção de Jogos has issued licenses for a casino gaming operation and two for a sports betting site.
Online gaming in Portugal is still seen as highly restrictive and highly taxed with a levy on gross gaming revenues as high as 30%. This is seen as greedy and counter-productive, and has deterred operators.
The ring-fenced nature of the industry means that PokerStars players will have to use a segregated website as in France, Spain and Italy and will not be able to play on a .com platform.
In recent months, a few governments have recognised that their greed has led to poor revenues and many of these now are looking at ways of working with operators to increase overall income by freeing up the market to boost demand.
