Portuguese Poker Regulation Could Shut Out Major Networks

One of those countries is Portugal. In 2015, it was announced that Portuguese players would not be permitted to segregate with international player pools. This would essentially, “Fence Off” the tiny nation from the rest of the world. Much the same model as France and Spain have been using for some time. This was obviously bad news for poker players hailing from one of the most beautiful parts of the world. Being a small country, with an even smaller poker population, this fencing off would equate to little traffic and games to choose from. Similar to the way American poker sites are run where each state is limited to in state population pools. The success of this model has not worked the way many politicians had hoped raising the question as to whether or not a liquidated – nationwide player pool, or even interstate player pools would prove more effective. What has taken the states years to decide on, only took Portugal about 5 months. The fencing off was announced on December 7th, 2015. On April 18th 2016, news came that international liquidity with Portugal was back open. This means that existing sites still operating inside Portugal's boundaries can now re-open the market and allow players to once again mingle with the rest of the world. Obviously great news. However, as with any good news, there's usually a bit of bad. This being no exception. While international liquidity is being permitted, there are caveats to this new regulation. Any business to business network will be denied access to this rule. Networks such as MicroGaming, iPoker and 888 will not be permitted for Portuguese players to play on. Poker Stars and Full Tilt will remain on the list of approved operators since Full Tilt is owned by Amaya. The ban is directed towards networks where multiple sites have different ownerships. Regulation is next on the plate for Portugal. Also in December, it was announced that they would be implementing a country wide regulation and licensing process. This is why the recent news of denying networks access is larger than it may appear. This new piece of regulation will surely shut out major networks who had already stated interest in applying for a license once regulation was in place. It appears that Poker Stars will once again dominate another countries poker space.