Portugal Prepares to Regulate and Tax Online Gambling
July 5, 2014
Portugal is expected to regulate and tax online gambling in the
very near future. The Portuguese Council of Ministers approved the
draft of a bill that would regulate and tax online gambling in Portugal.
If the bill goes through as expected, Portugal will be taxing gross
gaming revenues at a high rate. They are expected to put a gaming
tax on online poker which would range from 15% to 30% while sports
betting would have a rate of 37.5%.
The only current licensed online operator is the Santa Casa da
Misericordia de Lisboa (SCML). The Portugal Tourism Ministry is
expected to act as the regulator for the new laws and licensees.
The new law may be in effect by the end of the year although it
still has to be approved by the EU Commission. Portugal’s
regulations will likely end up being similar to what is already
in place in France, Spain and Italy.
Many countries around the world have already seen the light and
want in on the profits from online gambling. Portugal is just the
latest country that wants to get revenue from online betting. Europe
is not ahead of the United States in that many areas but there is
no question they lead the U.S. in terms of online gambling and that
is being proven again with this latest news coming from Portugal.
