PORTUGAL Law and Practice Contributed by: Pedro Cortés and Luís Portela de Carvalho, Lektou
• Decree-Law No 422/89 (Gaming Law, as amended) – establishes the State-reserved nature of land- based casino gaming, creates and qualifies geo- graphic gaming zones, and sets the concession model, catalogue of authorised games, supervisory powers, sanctions, and rules for bingo and slot halls. • Decree-Law No 66/2015 ( Regime Jurídico dos Jogos e Apostas Online , or RJO, as amended) – framework for online gambling and fixed-odds betting, covering licensing entities, technical sys- tem certification/homologation, authorised product catalogue, responsible gambling and AML/CFT obligations, reporting and event-notification, over- sight and sanctions. • Decree-Law No 67/2015 (Land-Based Fixed-Odds Sports Betting, as amended) – governs fixed-odds sports betting offered on land-based channels, including the role of designated public operators/ franchisees and interfaces with lottery/state social games. • Decree-Law No 68/2015 (Horse Racing – pari- mutuel and fixed-odds) – sets the legal framework for mutual and fixed-odds horse race betting, including the allocation of rights to designated public entities in retail channels and coordination with the online regime. • Law No 83/2017 and Law No 89/2017 (AML/ CFT, as amended) – sector-wide AML/CFT regime applicable to gambling “obliged entities”, including risk-based customer due diligience (CDD), benefi- cial ownership verification, PEP screening, ongoing monitoring, suspicious transaction report (STR) filing to the FIU, internal controls and training. • EU GDPR and Law No 58/2019 (national imple- mentation) – data-protection framework govern- ing lawful processing, transparency, minimisation, security, retention and data-subject rights; with particular relevance to self-exclusion, markers of harm and identity verification data. • Decree-Law No 330/90 (Advertising Code, as amended) and SRIJ guidelines on gambling advertising – set content, placement and targeting standards for gambling advertising and promo- tions. 2025 legislative proposals envisage a more restrictive regulatory outlook. • Portaria 211/2015 (online fees and homologa- tion costs) – establishes application, certification/
homologation and supervisory fee schedules under the RJO for online operators and products. • Product-level RJO regulations (2015 onwards) – SRIJ regulations specifying the technical and game rules for each authorised vertical (eg, fixed- odds sports betting, bingo, poker variants, slot machines, American/French roulette, blackjack), including RNG and return-to-player (RTP) stand- ards, logging, reporting formats and event-report- ing triggers. 3.2 Definition of Gambling There are two definitions of gambling under the Gam- ing Law and the RJO. The Gaming Law defines games of fortune or chance as “[g]ames whose outcome is contingent, depend- ing exclusively or mainly on luck”, adding that “any other games in which gain and loss are determined exclusively by chance are also considered games of fortune or chance”. The RJO defines online games of fortune or chance as “a game that involves the payment of a monetary amount and whose outcome is contingent, depending exclusively or mainly on luck.” “Online gambling and betting” are also defined there- in as games of fortune or chance, fixed-odds sports betting and mutual or fixed-odds horse race betting conducted remotely by electronic, computerised, tele- matic or interactive means. Portugal’s regulated catalogue includes banked table games (American and French roulette, blackjack/21, punto banco/baccarat), non-banked games (certain poker formats, bingo), slot machines, crash-type games where authorised, and fixed-odds betting. The definition excludes instruments and contracts where the activity’s economic purpose and risk allo- cation reflect financial services or insurance rather than gaming, consistent with long-standing doctrinal distinctions. 3.3 Definition of Land-Based Gambling The Gaming Law defines games of fortune or chance as “[g]ames whose outcome is contingent, depend-
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