The government of Portugal has hinted it is coming around to the notion of online gambling regulation that will fill up its treasury and provide much-needed revenue.
The Minister of Tourism, Cecilia Meireles, was quoted saying the government was considering the prospect of refining Portuguese regulation that has, up until now, been dominated by one monopoly.
Meireles has said that it is a “reasonable goal” to start collecting gambling fees for online betting as early as this year. In Portuguese newspaper Publico she said that legislators have “unanimously approved” policies to create favourable regulations.
Detail on what the government could reap in tax benefits from licensing and regulating activity in the country are still scant. But only last month a local online news source quoted €250m as the sum the Portuguese government hoped to collect in 2012 from concessions. Specifics of the plan are being closely guarded by the government however, the implication being that there will be opposition, although Mereiles has stated this is not from within the government or parliament. Which raises the question of whom is opposing the opening up the gambling market and allowing the government to benefit from letting private operators enter the market.
The odds are of course on the monopoly itself, Santa Casa de Misericordia de Lisboa, a Catholic aid organisation that has a state-sponsored monopoly on lottery and gambling. Santa Casa has been locked in battle with European-licensed online sports betting business bwin for several years now, with the latter still mired in lawsuits and court proceedings which began back in 2005 when it embarked on its sponsorship the Portuguese Football League.
The Portuguese monopoly and land-based casino lobby won a landmark victory against bwin in the European Court of Justice in 2009, which ruled that bwin’s right under EU law to provide goods and services across EU borders could be restricted in favour of the monopoly if it was designed to protect the public interest by combatting fraud and other crimes.
Back in January of this year, a Portuguese court ordered bwin terminate their advertising campaigns in Portugal and pay damages. The Football League said it was obliged to follow instructions from the court, but said it would lodge an appeal, as it would stand to lose considerable funding for the league should operators be forced to withdraw advertising. French operator BetClic also sponsors no less than 28 Portuguese professional football teams and has a significant market share in the territory.
bwin and other gambling companies’ tussle with the monopoly looks set to intensify if the government moves towards instigating changes that will cut into Casa’s profits, setting the government and professional sports bodies against the powerful Catholic and land-based casino lobbies.
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