Last week the Council
of Ministers approved plans to push ahead and legalise licensed online casino,
poker and sports betting. Pending approval by the National Assembly and the European
Commission, the new scheme could be in place by the end of this year. It will
allow foreign operators to apply for licences.
Although yet to
be convinced about the details, Jorge Armindo, president of the Portuguese
Casino Association, said in effect that it was high time online gambling in Portugal
was brought in from the cold.
It could also be
said that Portugal
is merely joining the big boys’ club. Online betting is already well established
and rapidly expanding in Europe and elsewhere around
the world. Nearly seven million people in Europe
regularly gamble online.
The European
Commission sums up the rather complicated legal situation as follows: “Online
gambling in the EU is characterised by a diversity of regulatory frameworks.
Some Member States have monopolistic regimes run either by a public or a
private operator on the basis of an exclusive right.
“Others have
established licensing systems for more than one operator. At the same time,
operators licensed in one or more Member States offer gambling services in
other Member States without the authorisation required in those countries.”
Gambling on the internet
has been commonplace for years in the United States despite demands for a
permanent federal ban. As online gambling is not fully regulated there, most
sites that accept American gamblers are based overseas.
While there is no
clear legislation in some countries and full legalisation or a total ban in
others, it is nearly impossible to prohibit or prevent access to internet
gambling sites.
All forms of
gambling in Portugal
at present are regulated by the Santa Casa da Misericordia de Lisboa (SCML), a
charitable institution. It also runs a state sanctioned monopoly on lotteries
and sports betting. There are more than 5,000 points of sale in the country,
plus 10 land casinos.
The SCML will
retain exclusive rights over social gaming, but the ministry of tourism will
act as the regulator for the new online laws and licensees.
It is the sheer
convenience of online betting that gets the thumbs-up from gamblers. It is
informal and beginner-friendly for those who might find a posh casino hall
intimidating.
Even people who
have never been into a casino building or a local bookie’s shop enjoy regularly
visiting online casinos and poker rooms.
But opponents say
gambling on the internet takes things too far. It crosses the line of
responsible gaming by targeting the young, the poor and the elderly where they
live, and by bringing gambling into living rooms and onto smartphones, tablets
and home computers 24-hours-a- day without necessary protections. It also
facilitates money laundering.
The main
objections to both traditional and online gambling are the financial risks
involved for gamblers who can ill-afford to lose. Those who do lose in quite a
big way often feel compelled to try to compensate, with dire consequences.
And then there
are the addicts for whom winning is intoxicating, like alcohol or drugs. They sometimes
end up losing their cars, homes and families.
The big winner when
online gambling is liberalised in Portugal will be the government, of
course. The taxes on games of chance will range from 15% to 30%. Sports betting
will attract a rate of 37.5%.
The government
says the money will be used to “encourage sport and for cultural development.”
But what about
the social costs? Can a balance be struck? Is there a way to quantify the social
costs and weigh them against the revenue benefits?
1 comment:
make not a lot of difference as Portuguese can gamble online with the overseas sites in fact BWIN used to sponsor the Portuguese Football league. But it is an opening for more gambling maybe Bingo for a tin of biscuits in the bar will be OK soon...
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