Casino Portugal issued country’s ninth online gambling license

A Portuguese land-based casino operator has been issued the country’s ninth online gambling license, but the country’s gaming regulator is increasingly preaching to its limited choir of operators.

On Monday, the Serviço Regulação e Inspeção de Jogos do Turismo de Portugal (SRIJ) regulatory body announced that it had issued online license #009 to Sociedade Figueira Praia, which plans to operate online casino games under its Casino Portugal brand at Casinoportugal.pt. The company received its Portuguese online sports betting license in June.

Jorge Armindo Teixeira, chairman of Sociedade Figueira Praia’s parent company Amorim Turismo, said the expansion into online casino gambling was intended to “consolidate the growth achieved in the first months of exploitation of sports betting.” The site has enlisted gaming providers iSoftBet and NetEnt to help fill out its online casino game portfolio.

Of the nine online licenses SRIJ has issued to date, eight are shared between four companies – the other three being Betclic Everest Group, BET Entertainment Technologies and Estoril Sol – each of which operate both sports betting and casino sites, while PokerStars holds the country’s only official online poker license.