The government expects to be handing out the first licences by the final quarter of this year with Mesquita Nunes confirming the cabinet had agreed the legal framework and that the Tourism Institute of Portugal would oversee the sector.
With regard to the taxes to be levied, the state secretary said that these would range between eight and 16 percent on the amount bet on sports outcomes whilst there would be a levy on gross income in the case of online casino style games of chance, fluctuating between 15 and 30 percent.
Players would have to be registered and automatically cross-referenced with the state’s tax records to both prevent under-age gambling as well as money laundering.
Mesquita Nunes also said that the Tourism Institute would be getting a new IT system equipped for its supervisory task and that gambling sites would be able to advertise with the same restrictions as those currently in effect for alcohol related adverts.
The government also announced that Santa Casa da Misericórdia de Lisboa would retain a monopoly on all real world-based bookies and similar gambling outlets, with the major change in the status quo being a lifting of the current ban on horse betting, with the aforementioned institution now authorised to take bets at horse racing and similar events.