Portugal’s online poker players have been given the green light to start sharing liquidity with their counterparts in France and Spain, after the country approved the necessary regulations.

On Thursday, the Serviço Regulação e Inspeção de Jogos do Turismo de Portugal (SRIJ) regulatory body approved regulations governing the technical requirements for Portuguese-licensed online poker sites – i.e. The Stars Group’s PokerStars – to share liquidity with sites in the regulated online gambling markets of France and Spain.

The new regulations were published in the official Diàrio de Republica and are set to take effect one day later, meaning PokerStars players in France, Portugal and Spain could all be splashing about in one big happy pool by the weekend, although Stars execs said just last week that a “Q2 launch” was more realistic.

PokerStars launched its French-Spanish pool last month, and players in non-regulated European Union markets and beyond were allowed to join in the fun by registering via Stars’ Spanish-licensed site. Reaction to this influx of international players has been mixed, due to an allegedly higher proportion of sharp players making the French-Spanish games tougher to beat.