LATIN AMERICAN FOCUS: CHILE CCA LAW
Portugal, like many other European countries, has a long gambling history to tell. What started off as an overall ban on gambling activities evolved to the enactment by Queen Maria I of the 1783 Royal Decree which allowed the operation of social gambling (the Lottery), a monopoly controlled, to this day, by Santa Casa da Misericórdia. Te Portuguese State relationship with gambling continued to evolve with the creation of gambling zones i.e., territorial concessions for the operation of land- based casinos. But for many years there was not much history regarding online gambling, that was prohibited until very recently, even though the legal loophole was perceived by many as a grey area and an opportunity market.
Te truth, however, is that in Portugal gambling is, by law, a right exclusively granted to the Portuguese State and as such, private entities are only allowed to operate when granted permission to do so by the Portuguese State.
April 2015 was the turning point and marked a new and important chapter in this history with the long-awaited enactment of the legal framework for online gambling and betting approved by Decree-Law no. 66/2015 (RJO). Under this diploma, private entities are allowed to apply for specific permits (under the form of licences) for the operation of both games of chance and fixed-odds sports bets in Portugal. Almost immediately, many Portuguese land- based operators and some international players rushed to apply for those online licenses. Te very first one was issued in May 2016, roughly one year after this new legal framework entered into force.
Fast-forwarding to the present and more than five years since the RJO was enacted, in a country with roughly 10 million habitants one could tell that, with 15 licensed operators and 26 issued licences this is a booming market set to thrive. Yet, while this market is expected to keep expanding in terms of quantity, it is in fact stalling in terms of “quality”.
Te abovementioned Decree-Law that allows the operation of online gambling on the Portuguese jurisdiction foresees a semi-closed list of types of games and bets that may be offered under the licensed regime namely fixed- odds sports bets, Totalizator/paris mutual or fixed-odds horse racing bets (no licence for this betting type was issued so far and there is no approved list of modalities and competitions to allow this specific type of operation), and games of chance if within one of the following types: punto banca/baccarat punto banca Macau, French banque, Blackjack/21, Bingo, Slots, Poker in tournament mode, non-banked poker of the variants “omaha”, “hold’em” and “synthetic poker”, Caribbean stud poker, American roulette and French roulette.
We may call it a semi-closed list because the RJO foresees that any interested party is free to request the Portuguese regulator (SRIJ - Te Gambling Inspection and Regulation Service), to approve and include any new types of games of chance. And even though this is a possibility, it is yet to be achieved by any operator. In fact, no
P66 WIRE / PULSE / INSIGHT / REPORTS
Alcina de Oliveira Senior Associate, CCA Law
Filipe Mayer has been with CCA Law firm since 2005 and a Partner since 2012. His specialised area is in the field of Technologies, Media and Telecommunications (TMT) and he is also responsible for the gaming sector with a focus on online betting and e-sports. Alcina de Oliveira Alves joined CCA in 2013 and is a Senior Associate in the TMT department. She also mainly focuses on online gaming, advertising, consumption, energy and public contracting.
fm@cca.law
aoa@cca.law
www.cca.law
Filipe Mayer Partner, CCA Law
“April 2015 was the turning point and marked a new and important chapter in this
history with the long-awaited enactment of the legal
framework for online gambling and betting approved by Decree-Law no. 66/2015 (RJO). Under this diploma,
private entities are allowed to apply for specific permits
(under the form of licences) for the operation of both games of chance and fixed-odds sports bets in Portugal. ”
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