Portugal’s online gamblers are fewer in number this year than the year before, although slightly more of them are patronizing locally licensed sites.

This week, the Portuguese Association of Online Betting and Games (APAJO) released the results of a new survey conducted by pollsters Aximage on the habits of the country’s online gamblers. The survey, which was conducted in August, involved 601 registered online gambling customers (501 of which were male), the bulk of whom were between 18 and 34 years of age.

The survey found that 82.9% of respondents had gambled online in 2020, down from 93.6% the year before. The number of respondents who gambled solely with Portuguese-licensed sites increased 1.2 points to 45.2%, while the number who favored only internationally licensed options dipped 0.4 points to 5.6%. The jurisdictional-agnostic ranks of those who enjoyed both options fell 0.8 points to 49.2%.

The majority of respondents (92.8%) claimed to be able to discern between operators who held local licenses and those who didn’t. Of those who chose to gamble purely on Portuguese-licensed sites, 71.5% did so for security reasons, up 7.5 points from 2019. Those who favored international sites cited better bonuses, odds and a broader product range as motivating factors.