TLDR
- Portugal’s Minister of Economy announced new legislation coming “this summer” to tackle illegal online gambling
- The country’s online gambling market is valued at around €24 billion, with unlicensed activity growing fast
- The new laws will focus on oversight, sanctions, prevention, and public awareness
- In April 2026, Portugal launched a unified self-exclusion portal cutting access across all licensed platforms at once
- Earlier reforms in January 2026 expanded legal offerings to include bet boosts, bonus buys, and bet builder features
Portugal’s government is preparing new laws to crack down on illegal online gambling, with legislation expected to be introduced this summer.
Manuel Castro Almeida, Portugal’s Minister of Economy, made the announcement at the launch of a new public awareness campaign. He called illegal gambling a “plague” that harms families and the wider economy.
“Illegal online gambling destroys many people, many families, many individuals, and it’s also terrible for the economy,” Castro Almeida said.
What the New Law Would Cover
The proposed legislation would update Portugal’s existing online gambling rules. The minister said the focus would be on oversight, sanctions, active prevention, and raising public awareness about the risks of illegal platforms.
Castro Almeida also invited industry stakeholders to contribute ideas, saying the government is open to changes if they help address the problem.
Portugal’s legal online gambling market is valued at around €24 billion. The minister warned that unlicensed activity is growing fast, fuelled by what he described as “the idea of impunity.”
A previous attempt by opposition party Livre to change the gambling law was rejected in parliament. The government is now moving forward with its own proposal.
Recent Reforms Already Underway
This announcement builds on a series of gambling reforms Portugal has already made in 2026.
In January, the country’s gaming regulator approved new product features for licensed operators. These included bet boosts, bonus buys, and bet builder options. The changes were designed to modernise the market and bring it in line with practices common across the EU.
Around the same time, authorities blocked access to Polymarket following the national election. The move was seen as a tougher approach toward unlicensed platforms operating in the country.
Then in April, Portugal took another step forward on player protection. The Gaming Regulation and Inspection Service, known as SRIJ, launched a unified self-exclusion portal on April 8, 2026.
Before this system existed, players could get around self-exclusion bans by simply opening accounts with different operators. The new portal changed that.
Now all licensed platforms in Portugal are connected to a single database. When a user registers for self-exclusion, access is automatically blocked across every regulated operator in the country.
The upcoming summer legislation is expected to add enforcement teeth to these existing protections, targeting the unlicensed operators that fall outside the current framework entirely.
