How to get a gambling licence in Portugal: fees and steps

A single national authority licenses and supervises all online gambling. It is an inspection service within the state tourism institute, and it is separate from the body that runs land-based lotteries and state betting.

• The regulator is the Servico de Regulacao e Inspecao de Jogos (SRIJ), an inspection body with technical and operational autonomy inside Turismo de Portugal, I.P. It receives and processes licence applications, assesses the IEJO tax, supervises compliance and enforces against illegal operators (RJO arts. 31 and 88; DL 129/2012 art. 9(2)). The Comissão de Jogos grants, extends, suspends and revokes the licences (DL 129/2012 art. 7(3)(a)), and a recognised entity certifies the technical system before SRIJ homologates it (RJO art. 35).
• Licence decisions sit with the Comissão de Jogos of Turismo de Portugal, which also decides advertising proceedings, while the SRIJ is the technical and inspection arm that receives applications and opens proceedings (DL 129/2012 arts. 7(3) and 9(2)). For an incoming operator, the SRIJ is the single point of contact.
• A different body, Santa Casa da Misericordia de Lisboa (SCML), runs the national lotteries and land-based (state) sports betting. Online sports betting, online casino, online bingo and online horse-race betting are governed exclusively by the RJO and supervised by the SRIJ, so an online operator deals with the SRIJ, not the SCML.
• The legal age to gamble is 18. Sovereign and government office-holders, prosecutors, police, operator company-body members and anyone who can influence a sporting event are barred from playing (Article 6).

Laws that apply

• Regime Juridico dos Jogos e Apostas Online (RJO), Decreto-Lei 66/2015 of 29 April 2015 (consolidated, as amended). The core online-gambling statute, set out in Schedule I to the decree-law.
• RJO Schedule I: the operating and licensing framework (Articles 8 to 23), the gambling technical system (Articles 32 to 36), player registration and protection (Articles 37 to 42) and the special online gambling tax IEJO (Articles 87 to 92).
• The special online gambling tax (Imposto Especial de Jogo Online, IEJO), Articles 87 to 92 of the RJO. The games-of-chance rate was changed from the original progressive scale to a flat 25 percent of gross revenue by the 2020 State Budget (Lei 2/2020, 31 March 2020), which is the last consolidated amendment to the RJO tax articles.
• Portaria 211/2015 (the fee schedule: technical-system homologation, licence issue and licence extension fees).
• Lei 83/2017 of 18 August, the anti-money-laundering and counter-terrorist-financing law, under which online gambling operators are obliged entities (replacing the earlier Law 25/2008 referenced in the original RJO text).
• Codigo da Publicidade (Advertising Code, Decreto-Lei 330/90), Article 21, as amended by the RJO, which governs gambling and betting advertising.

The market dates from Decreto-Lei 66/2015. The statute has been amended several times, most importantly by the 2020 State Budget, which reset the tax on games of chance.

There is no single all-verticals licence. The RJO sets out four online categories, and a licence covers only the games actually applied for and certified.

• The RJO categories (Article 5) are: fixed-odds sports bets; totalisator (pari-mutuel) and fixed-odds horse-race bets; games of chance; and bingo. Games of chance is a catalogue of authorised game types, and crash games are also available (Regulamento 308/2023): baccarat punto banco, French banque, blackjack/21, slot machines, tournament poker, non-banking poker (omaha, hold em, synthetic), Caribbean stud poker, American roulette and French roulette.
• Licences are granted per category (Article 12). In practice there are four online licence types an operator can hold: (a) fixed-odds sports betting; (b) mutual and fixed-odds horse-race betting; (c) bingo; and (d) games of chance.
• A licence covers only the games applied for. Adding a new game type, or a new type of game of chance not in the original catalogue, requires fresh certification and SRIJ authorisation before it can go live (Articles 12(2) to (4) and 25).
• New types of games of chance beyond the Article 5 catalogue can be authorised by the SRIJ, but only after certification and official approval of the technical system for those games.

Online licences run for three years and are extendable for successive three-year periods, on application and continued compliance.

• The licence is valid for an initial term of three years from the date of issue (Article 20(1)). It is extendable, at the operator request, for successive periods of three years (Article 20(2)).
• Extension is not automatic. It is granted only if tax and social-security affairs are in order, good standing and technical, economic and financial capacity are maintained, the fee is paid, there are no outstanding fines, the security deposits have been topped up as ordered, and there have been no significant or persistent operating shortcomings (Article 20(3)).
• The extension request must be filed 90 days before the current term ends (Article 20(4)), and the same application procedure as the original licence applies (Article 20(5)).
• A licence may only be transferred with prior SRIJ authorisation, including where a change of control of the operator would transfer it in substance (Article 21). It expires at the end of its term if not extended, or if the operator is wound up (Article 22), and can be revoked or suspended for the grounds in Article 23 (false declarations, loss of capacity, unauthorised transfer, technical-system breach, serious repeat offences, AML failures).

The applicant must be a limited-liability company established in the EU or EEA, with a branch in Portugal if it is foreign, and must pass good-standing and capacity tests.

• The operator must be a limited-liability company (sociedade anónima) or equivalent, with its registered office in an EU Member State or in a State that is a signatory to the EEA Agreement bound to administrative cooperation on tax and on combating fraud and money laundering. A non-Portuguese company must have a branch in Portugal (Article 9). Its company object must include operating gambling and betting.
• The cumulative conditions for grant (Article 13): tax affairs in order in Portugal or the home State; social-security affairs in order; good standing; technical capacity; economic and financial capacity; and a structuring plan of the gambling technical system (hosting location, national-territory front-end, self-exclusion mechanisms, betting limits, security controls).
• Good standing (Article 14) is lost by insolvency, business prohibitions, two final sentencing decisions for serious or very serious offences, or res judicata convictions for fraud, money laundering, illegal gambling and similar crimes. Economic and financial capacity (Article 16) is tested by a financial-autonomy ratio (equity to net assets) that must be at least 35 percent, evidenced by the statutory auditor.
• At least 60 percent of the operator share capital must be in registered (nominative) shares so the SRIJ can always know the relevant holders, and changes must be notified within 30 days (Article 26(6)).

An operator pays homologation and licence fees to the SRIJ, and lodges two security deposits before the licence is issued.

The special online gambling tax is the defining feature of the regime. It is charged on two different bases depending on the vertical, so the two must be modelled separately.

• The tax is the Imposto Especial de Jogo Online (IEJO). Operators are liable to it (Article 88), it is assessed monthly by the SRIJ, and it is paid by the fifteenth of the following month. Revenue from IEJO-liable activity is exempt from corporate income tax (IRC) and stamp duty (Article 87), so the IEJO substitutes for those taxes rather than adding to them.
• Fixed-odds betting is taxed on turnover, the total amount of bets placed, not on the operator margin. Games of chance are taxed on gross gaming revenue (GGR), the stakes less the prizes paid out. That split, turnover versus GGR, is the key nuance of the Portuguese regime.
• For fixed-odds betting the base rate is 8 percent of turnover; the original RJO text adds a progressive escalator up to a maximum of 16 percent on the slice of annual turnover above EUR 30,000,000 (Articles 90 and 91). For games of chance the rate is 25 percent of GGR following the 2020 reform; the original text was a progressive scale from 15 up to a maximum 30 percent of GGR (Article 89).

The platform must run on a .pt site, be certified before launch, keep its reporting infrastructure and data in Portugal, and stream activity to the SRIJ.

• The operator must run its service on a website with the ".pt" domain, and must redirect to it all connections from Portugal or from Portuguese-registered player accounts (Articles 26(1)(c) and 28).
• The gambling technical system (the website, the reporting front-end and the gambling platform) must apply security controls conforming to ISO 27001 (Article 32(5)), and games of chance must use a certified random number generator (Article 33).
• Localisation duties (Article 34): system components must be on premises the SRIJ can access at any time; the reporting front-end infrastructure must be set up in the national territory; data on gambling activity must be stored in the national territory for 10 years; and monthly activity reports must be delivered (Article 34(e)). Transaction and financial summary files also go to the SRIJ every hour under its Instructions 24/2025 and 25/2025.
• The technical system must be certified and officially approved (homologação) by an entity on a list published by the SRIJ, and then tested by the SRIJ, before the licence issues (Articles 17 and 35). The SRIJ conducts periodic audits after approval (Article 36), and new game types require fresh certification.

Every player is registered and identity-verified, self-exclusion runs at both operator and national level, and only euro electronic payments are allowed.

• Player registration (Article 37) captures full name, date of birth, nationality, occupation, home address, civil identification or passport number, tax number, email and payment-account details. Identity is verified through a real-time connection to SRIJ public-entity databases, or via the Cartão de Cidadão (citizen card) or the Chave Móvel Digital (digital mobile key). Only one registration per website, and guest/demo accounts may carry no money and pay no prizes.
• Self-exclusion (Article 39): a player can self-exclude on the operator site, which blocks that site, or on the SRIJ website, which blocks all licensed operators. The minimum self-exclusion period is three months, running to a date the player sets or indefinitely, and a revocation takes effect one month after it is requested. Operators report self-excluded players to the SRIJ within 24 hours, and an SRIJ self-exclusion suspends or cancels the player's accounts at every licensed site.
• Player accounts (Articles 40 and 41): one account per player per website, the balance may never be negative, and transfers between player accounts are not allowed. The operator must have a dedicated bank account in an EU Member State through which all activity flows (Article 26(1)(h)).
• Only electronic payment methods in euro, the legal tender in Portugal, are permitted, and operators may not grant loans to players or provide means for players to lend to each other (Article 42). A responsible-gambling plan and a permanent responsible-gambling message are required (Article 7).

Operators are AML-obliged entities and must advertise in a socially responsible way under the Advertising Code as amended by the RJO.

• Anti-money laundering: online gambling operators are obliged entities under Lei 83/2017 of 18 August, the current Portuguese AML and counter-terrorist-financing law (which replaced Law 25/2008 cited in the original RJO). Core duties are a risk assessment, customer due diligence and identification (reinforced by the Article 37 registration), beneficial-owner checks, ongoing monitoring, record-keeping and immediate suspicious-transaction reporting to the DCIAP and the Unidade de Informação Financeira (the financial intelligence unit). The RJO itself requires AML-compliant accounting records (Articles 26(1)(m) and 43).
• Advertising is governed by Article 21 of the Advertising Code (Decreto-Lei 330/90) as amended by the RJO. It must be socially responsible, protect minors and other vulnerable groups, not direct or use minors, not suggest easy gain or social success, and not encourage excessive play (art. 21(1) and (2)).
• Advertising is banned in schools and other infrastructure frequented by minors, and within 250 metres in a straight line of them, and gambling advertising may not be associated with the granting of loans (Article 21(3) to (6)).
• The SRIJ and the Turismo de Portugal gambling commission oversee advertising compliance and can impose fines and additional penalties (Advertising Code Article 40, as amended).

The SRIJ blocks unlicensed sites, publishes the official operator list and issues quarterly market statistics. The licensed market is mid-sized and growing.

• Unlicensed operators are blocked: intermediary network service providers must, within 48 hours of notice, follow SRIJ orders to block access to illegal sites (Article 31). By 30 June 2026 SRIJ had sent 1,834 closure notices to illegal operators and notified 3,043 sites for blocking (SRIJ, Q2 2026 report).
• The official source of truth for who is licensed is the SRIJ list of licensed operators, published on the SRIJ site alongside quarterly market statistics. Verify a live count there rather than from a press snapshot.
• Market size (SRIJ, Q2 2026, at 30 June 2026): gross revenue of EUR 328.2 million in the quarter and EUR 92.1 million of IEJO; 413.7 thousand self-excluded. On SRIJ's register (updated 14 September 2026) 19 entities hold 33 licences (13 sports betting, 19 games of chance, 1 bingo); at 30 June 2026 SRIJ's quarterly report counted 17 operators with 30 licences and 4.9 million registered players. The SRIJ register, updated 14 September 2026, lists 33 licences for 19 holders (13 sports betting, 19 games of chance, 1 bingo), after Retabet Portugal and Play Jogo (Vincino) were licensed on 24 July 2026; four of them (Moosh’s two, and the sports-betting licences of Nossa Aposta and Luckia) are suspended at the operators’ request. The Comissão de Jogos revoked Betway’s licences 021 and 022 at the operator’s request on 5 January 2026.

A realistic route from decision to a live, IEJO-registered Portuguese online operation. Certification of the technical system, with its .pt front-end and Portuguese reporting infrastructure, is the long pole, so start it early.

1. 01

   Scope the verticals and budget the cost stack

   Planning

   Decide which of the four categories you want (fixed-odds sports betting, horse-race betting, bingo, games of chance), remembering that each is a separate licence. Budget the stack: EUR 21,721.65 initial homologation plus EUR 2,413.52 per category or game type, EUR 14,481.10 licence issue per main category, the EUR 500,000 and EUR 100,000 deposits, and the IEJO tax on the right base for each vertical.

2. 02

   Set up the corporate vehicle and Portuguese branch

   Structuring

   Use a limited-liability company (sociedade anónima) with its registered office in the EU or the EEA and a company object that includes operating gambling. A non-Portuguese company must register a branch in Portugal. Ensure at least 60 percent of the share capital is in registered shares so the SRIJ can identify the holders (Article 26(6)).

3. 03

   Assemble the good-standing and capacity dossier

   Compliance

   Gather evidence that tax and social-security affairs are in order, that the company and its officers meet good standing (Article 14), and that the financial-autonomy ratio is at least 35 percent, backed by the statutory auditor opinion (Article 16). Prepare the structuring plan of the gambling technical system (Article 13).

4. 04

   Build the gambling technical system on Portuguese infrastructure

   Technical

   Stand up the ".pt" website, the reporting front-end infrastructure in the national territory, and the gambling platform, with ISO 27001 security controls and a certified random number generator for games of chance. Provide for 10-year data storage in national territory and monthly and hourly reporting to the SRIJ (Articles 28 and 32 to 34; Instructions 24/2025 and 25/2025).

5. 05

   Certify the technical system with an SRIJ-listed entity

   Technical

   Have the technical system certified and prepared for official approval by an entity on the SRIJ published list (Article 35). Certification must cover exactly the games you intend to offer, because the licence only covers certified games.

6. 06

   File the licence application with the SRIJ

   Regulatory

   Submit the application on the SRIJ standard form, preferably electronically, in Portuguese, with foreign documents accompanied by legalised translations (Article 11). Identify the categories and game types you are applying for. Respond to any SRIJ request to correct omissions within the 10-day window.

7. 07

   Pass SRIJ homologation and testing

   Regulatory

   The SRIJ reviews the structuring plan, validates the certification reports and runs its own tests on the technical system for official approval (homologação). Address findings until the system is approved for the games applied for (Article 35).

8. 08

   Pay the fees, lodge the two deposits, and take the licence

   Regulatory

   Within the SRIJ deadline, pay the licence issue fee (EUR 14,481.10 for sports, horse or casino; EUR 2,413.52 for bingo), pay the homologation fee (EUR 21,721.65 plus EUR 2,413.52 per category or game type), and lodge the EUR 500,000 legal-obligations deposit and the EUR 100,000 IEJO deposit as a bank deposit or bank guarantee. The SRIJ then issues the three-year licence (Articles 17 and 18).

9. 09

   Wire in player registration and identity verification

   Compliance

   Implement Article 37 registration (name, date of birth, tax number, address, payment account) with identity verification via the SRIJ database connection, the Cartão de Cidadão or the Chave Móvel Digital. Enforce one account per player per website and block anonymous or third-party accounts.

10. 10

    Wire in self-exclusion, responsible gambling and euro payments

    Compliance

    Integrate operator-level self-exclusion and the SRIJ central self-exclusion, with 24-hour reporting to the SRIJ (minimum three months), publish the responsible-gambling plan and permanent message (Article 7), restrict funding to euro electronic payment methods, and route all flows through a dedicated EU bank account (Articles 39, 42 and 26(1)(h)).

11. 11

    Set up IEJO accounting and monthly filing

    Tax

    Stand up tax accounting that computes the IEJO on the correct base for each vertical (8 percent of turnover for fixed-odds betting, 25 percent of GGR for games of chance) and file and pay monthly by the fifteenth (Articles 88 to 91). Keep the AML programme under Lei 83/2017 running in parallel.

12. 12

    Launch, report, and renew before the term ends

    Ongoing

    Operate 24/7, deliver the hourly and monthly SRIJ reports, keep certification current when adding games, expect the deposits to be revised upward after six months, and file the extension request 90 days before the three-year term ends (Articles 20, 29 and 34).

Tier-ordered: official government first, then practitioner, then trade media. Every primary figure was read from the in-force text on 23 Sep 2026.