The Serviço Regulação e Inspeção de Jogos do Turismo de Portugal (SRIJ), Portugal’s gambling regulatory body, has issued a license to Spanish gaming company Luckia to operate online casinos and sports betting facilities. Luckia Gaming Group will operate in the country using the Luckia.pt domain.
The Luckia.pt domain is still under wraps, which kind of reflect the lack of urgency from Luckia. José González Fuentes, the company president, said that Luckia did not have “much ambition in Portugal because it is a modest country,” but the market was nonetheless important due to its “proximity” to Luckia’s Spanish home base.
Fuentes also noted that the tax burden Portugal imposed on its online gambling was “very high,” which would make posting an online gambling profit “not easy.” Portugal taxes online casino and poker revenue at an incremental rate of 15–30 per cent, while sports betting is taxed anywhere from 8 to 16 per cent of wagering turnover.
These taxes are one of the reasons why just eight operators hold all the 15 online licenses in Portugal. Several top-notch companies consider Portugal’s regulated market as not profitable.
Luckia is expanding, as it already obtained a license in Colombia’s regulated online gambling market.
Source: CalvinAyre
