In protest of the latest decision to ring-Fence player pools, the national association of online gamblers of Portugal (ANAon) has urge for a boycott of regulated online poke market in Portugal.
Even though the online poker market is currently closed in Portugal, the online gambling reforms have been in place since June 28th.
The announcement made last December has angered many poker players in Portugal. There has been decided Portugal will adopt the French model of partial segregation and poker players in the country are not happy about it.
This French model of segregation means that, although international players can wager on .fr websites, players residing in Portugal are not able to play in the international player pool.
Since 2011, when this model was adopted in France, the French online poker market has been in a negative spiral.
This decision to segregate the market is bad for both Portuguese players and also the international player pool. Players residing in Portugal have now a limited range of games available and smaller prize pools. This decision doesn’t benefit the international player pool either, since it means that an entire nation, over 10 million people are removed from the international virtual poker tables.
For the operators, this decision is also bad, as for them it will be hard to make any money in such a restrictive and taxed online poker environment. It makes it very hard to compete with other markets that are unregulated.
In the Portuguese Gambling Act there was no mention about a ring fencing, that’s why it came as a surprise to prospective operators who assumed there would be no segregation.
Mr. Adolfo Mesquita Nunes, one of the writers of the gambling act, wrote the following about this new development:
“I do not consider the French model as a real international liquidity model. I consider the [fusion_builder_container hundred_percent=”yes” overflow=”visible”][fusion_builder_row][fusion_builder_column type=”1_1″ background_position=”left top” background_color=”” border_size=”” border_color=”” border_style=”solid” spacing=”yes” background_image=”” background_repeat=”no-repeat” padding=”” margin_top=”0px” margin_bottom=”0px” class=”” id=”” animation_type=”” animation_speed=”0.3″ animation_direction=”left” hide_on_mobile=”no” center_content=”no” min_height=”none”][system in Denmark and the UK] as model of international liquidity. It was by reference to this model that we prepared our own”
In addition the national association of online gamblers of Portugal (ANAon) made an official announcement saying that their members would not “join the game” anymore. This is how they explain their decision:
“This position is intended to alert the Portuguese regulator [SRIJ] that ANAon’s poker players will not use Portuguese- regulated rooms open only to domestic liquidity or those rooms [which] adopt the French model that accepts foreigners provided they register at the Portuguese platform.”
Let’s see if there will be any response from the Portuguese regulator.[/fusion_builder_column][/fusion_builder_row][/fusion_builder_container]
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