Portugal Casinos

Introduction

Portugal is a European country with a rich gambling past, even though it is primarily associated with stunning beaches and a vibrant culture famous for its cuisine. Today, this nation, renowned for its maritime history, has one of the Old Continent’s more structured gambling markets, and all things considered, it legalized online gambling faster than most, as it has had a regulated Internet gaming and betting sphere since 2015. Before the landmark Decree-Law No. 66 was passed in 2015, which established this nation’s remote gambling market and created its regulator - the Servico de Regulacao e Inspecao de Jogos (SRIJ), operating under Turismo de Portugal, its residents had to use foreign sites to satisfy their online games of chance and sports wagering needs.

The SRIJ replaced the previous Inspectorate-General of Games, and it took over the licensing and monitoring of online operators, issuing the first sets of approvals in mid-2016, when Portugal’s remote gambling arena officially kicked off. Despite the SRIJ and the country’s ISPs blocking unlicensed sites, Portuguese players still access international casino websites via various technical workarounds, such as the use of VPN services. Though fines are possible for this, prosecution is rare, which has contributed to the popularity of these platforms. Hence, there is no shortage of choice regarding picking good quality online casinos for Portuguese players, and we explain how to find the best ones here if you just follow our lead.

Tips for Online Gambling in Portugal

Given that there is no lack of options, on account of Portugal having a mature regulated market spiced up with international alternatives, sites of differing quality get presented to Portuguese games of chance enthusiasts daily. While an abundance of options is usually a great problem to have, it can also muddy the waters and make the selection process a bit exhausting. Picking the right site turns from something instinctual and fun into a procedure that involves evaluating things like regulation, security, games, payments, promotions, and so on. That said, there is no reason to fret; we will guide you through all of this, giving you all the information you need to quickly be able to filter out reputable platforms.

Browse detailed high-quality casino reviews

And read as many as possible, but only from trusted analysis hubs. The Internet, over the past three decades, has been flooded with casino reviews. Naturally, most of these are not good. You want to focus on ones written by experts who have years of experience in scanning gambling platforms and know what separates top brands from middle-of-the-road ones. They also know how to single out shady operators who engage in nefarious practices frowned upon in this sector; these are ones that newbies cannot spot. Our team here at WizardsOfOdds features such professionals. But, if you find it difficult to understand what they have written, here are a few other high-end review hubs for you to check out.

Trusted Portals

• World Casino Directory
• LCB.org
• Fox Bonus
• Casino News Daily

Analyze our blacklist when selecting a site

This is a must, and we cannot highlight how important a step this is in the casino selection process. First off, you must understand that we have compiled our WoO blacklist throughout, essentially, our entire existence, and each brand we have put on there, we have had good reason for doing so. These are platforms that do not deserve your service, in our opinion, and ones we have added there to warn anyone that they are not options to consider. This is usually on account of them not treating customers right or due to their involvement in scandals. So, if a site has found its way onto our blacklist, give it a pass.

Carefully scan the Terms and Conditions pages

There should be a general site one and a general bonus T&C, along with distinct pages for each offered promotion. Going through these thoroughly ensures that you know everything there is to know about how a given platform and its promos work. Hence, by reading these pages, you should be equipped with knowledge on all the dos and don’ts a site has in place. You will know about things like its withdrawal policy and its pitfalls, all the bonus rules, including bet restrictions and game limitations.

Licensed and Regulated Portuguese Casinos

We assume that most Portuguese casino players will like to play at home-based sites, as these supply the best legal protection in case of disputes. A major difference between hubs approved and overseen by the SRIJ, or the Servico de Regulacao e Inspecao de Jogos, and foreign ones is that the former offer legal recourse against operators in Portugal. The SRIJ can punish companies running gambling sites that do not play by the rules, and you can escalate a dispute to Portuguese courts if you feel you have been wronged.

The issue with international casinos is that problems there get handled by the regulator in the country the site is based in, and many platforms have it written in their T&Cs that their verdict, or that of their operator, is final. Many allow the escalation of disputes only to designated arbiters or the court in the country where the operator has been registered as a business. Still, reputable offshore sites do exist. Foreign ones often get called offshore because they function from an island nation, like Anjouan, Antigua, Curacao, and Mwali. But many also function from smaller ones like Panama and Gibraltar. If you are going to go with an international casino, make sure it is one that has gotten the seal of approval from an experienced offshore regulator, for instance, the Curacao Gaming Control Board.

Casino Trust and Security

While a casino license is important, it is not the end-all, be-all. It does not guarantee that you will get a safe and fair gaming experience. To be sure that you are given games that are on the up and up and state-of-the-art security, you will need to perform the following checks.

Look to see if your considered platform gets its housed gaming products regularly audited by third-party agencies like TST, GLI, iTech Labs, and similar companies that engage in independent RNG testing/certification. Data security through SSL/TLS encryption and authentication is also a must, and it can get verified by looking at a site’s service certificate, accessible via your browser’s lock address bar icon.

Additional features that give peace of mind and boost safety for users are login monitoring, 2FA, and responsible gambling tools. The latter shows that a brand cares about its customers by letting them enjoy their favorite games safely, allowing them to set deposit, session, and loss limits.

Banking Options for Portuguese Players

Following your created shortlist of trusted Portuguese online casinos, you should move from going through safety-related factors to convenience-centric ones. The top of your list should be looking at each considered platform’s banking arsenal.

For the most part, licensed Portuguese operators should support local methods like Multibanco, a local interbank network, which is a renowned choice for depositing and withdrawals, and MB Way, which is an instant mobile payment option that connects to Portuguese banks. Of course, Visa- and MasterCard-issued cards by Portuguese banks will also get offered, as well as bank transfers and popular e-wallets such as PayPal, Skrill, and Neteller.

You should be careful with e-wallet use, because sometimes operators exclude bonus eligibility for users who have made Skrill or Neteller deposits. Digital currencies are a no-go at regulated Portuguese casino sites, but they are provided at international ones, which usually give higher limits for transactions made through these. At the end of the day, you should go with the transfer choice you are most comfortable with. But note that each one will have its limits and specificities. Pick whatever is most convenient for you.

Depositing and Withdrawing in Portugal

Once you have chosen a site and registered with it by providing accurate personal details, which will verify that you are of the legal gambling age in Portugal, eighteen, you may have to go through KYC. That is identity verification, which is mandatory at SRIJ-licensed platforms. The laws in the country clearly state that it is the duty of gambling operators to verify that their accepted customers are of legal gambling age and in full ownership of the payment method they use. There is no option for anyone to create an anonymous account at an SRIJ-licensed site. That is possible at international crypto casinos, which have no regulator, or have a lax one that does not obligate them to identify their players.

Depositing at any casino site is usually a by-the-numbers process that consists of you going to the Banking section, sometimes called the Payment page or the Cashier window, using the deposit button on the top or your profile menu. Once that section loads, you must navigate to its Deposit tab, pick your preferred transaction option, input the sum you wish to fund your account with, and confirm the transfer. Virtually all deposits should land very quickly in your balance. Many sites advertise instant depositing or withdrawing, but the truth is that this procedure, even in the best-case scenarios, takes a few seconds. Nothing is instant.

For withdrawing, the process is largely similar, occurring in the same Banking section used for depositing. The difference is that withdrawals are generally slower for most methods; they can require manual review, which causes delays, and even foreign casinos may demand KYC for them. Thus, before requesting one at such hubs, it is good that everyone clears this procedure first, as well as completing any wagering requirements for all the bonuses claimed, because not doing the latter will stop the payout of any bonus-linked winnings.

The KYC process at most casinos can get completed in a day, two at most. Nevertheless, in some instances, it can drag out, but it is crucial to highlight that you will have a deadline in which to complete it once this demand gets levied on you. If you do not do this, then your account may get closed. For the most part, fiat withdrawals take days to process, with the exception of e-wallet ones, which may get you your prize in a few hours.

Best Casino Games & Software in Portuguese Casinos

It does not matter what type of player you are. Modern Portuguese-catering casino websites likely have loads of games that will suit your taste. There are many high-end developers that are firmly established in the online gambling industry and known the world over, active in the regulated Portuguese iGaming market. Offshore brands that allow Portuguese players to sign up have even more games than home-based ones, with many of these platforms’ gaming lobbies boasting several thousand titles. Some have even more than ten thousand. Consequently, there is something for everyone.

Online Slots

These games are beloved by all. Even hard-core gamblers who are into low house edge gaming cannot resist them and play them from time to time. This is so because there are more than forty thousand of these created in the past three decades, meaning there is a title for every niche. Though rainbow, Irish, Egyptian, history, and fruit games still dominate. That said, in recent times, players have turned to prioritizing game mechanics over themes, and products with engines like Megaways, Hold & Win, Area Link, and so on have become the preferred choice for many, as modern engagement, for most, lies in gameplay allure, not presentation. Progressive jackpot spinners still have their sector place, and their spot on the mantel cannot be taken over, as the enticement of winning millions will always remain an allure for all.

Online Table Games

For all the laypeople out there reading this, table games are casino classics like Craps, Baccarat, Roulette, Blackjack, and casino poker variants such as Ultimate Texas Hold’Em and Caribbean Stud. We are sure there are a few categories we missed, but these are the core of the table genre, and they are attractive because they have the same rules the world over and offer attractive odds. The terrific thing about online casino pages these days is that there are all kinds of different iterations of these classics on hand, along with a host of video poker options at most casinos. Moreover, many of the versions are provided in both the RNG and live dealer format, which we tell you more about below.

Live Dealer Options for Portuguese Players

Genre juggernauts like Evolution, Pragmatic Play, and Playtech provide their streaming games at Portuguese casino platforms regulated by the SRIJ, giving players living in Portugal access to exceptionally trained dealers working from authentic casino-like studios. This category of games started to get its footing globally around the same time Portugal legalized casino websites, and these titles are now widely popular in the country.

Fans of them can enjoy standard table games in the live dealer format at SRIJ hubs, which too should have Evolution’s game show offering, which features options like DreamCatcher, Monopoly Live, Crazy Time, and so on. Pragmatic Play has similar streaming choices, and that also holds for most top providers of live gaming experiences nowadays. Naturally, the live game offering at offshore casinos will be richer, since not all suppliers partnered with such sites are active in the regulated Portuguese market.

Online Casino Bonuses for Portuguese Players

Everyone knows that bonuses are the main thing that drives sign-ups and retention at online casinos. When you open a gaming site, the first thing you see is a banner advertising the latest registration offer or that platform’s loyalty program. Everyone loves freebies, and operators know this, which is why they dangle attractive promotions to lure in new players. They also must keep showering those who have been active on their platforms with bonuses for these individuals to stay and keep playing for as long-term as possible.

Nonetheless, not all promotions are created equal, and when choosing which one to claim, it is smart to put their terms in an expected value calculator to examine their true worth. The great thing about these calculators is that they are free and readily available online. They require that you input conditions such as a deal’s wagering requirement, its deadline, minimum allowed RTP, max bet, and so on, and in a second, they spit out how feasible it is for you to complete the analyzed offer and what its profit potential is.

You can scan the bonus terms on your own. If you do, know that wagering requirements above 35x are hard to complete, and as a rule of thumb, the higher the given bonus amount is, the higher its connected rollover/playthrough/wagering requirement will be. Also, free spins bonuses have higher wagering requirements than match-based deals. When you have a firm grasp of discerning what a good-quality promotion is, you will be able to weed out poor Welcome Bonuses, Cashback offers, Free Spins ones, and even tournaments. You will not get pulled in by fancy promises and will be able to tell which loyalty program is actually worth joining.

Problem Gambling in Portugal

People get too engrossed in online gambling in Portugal, just as they do everywhere else. That is why the SRIJ has stepped in and put in place strong responsible gambling measures for operators to implement. In 2022, Portugal launched an enhanced version of its National Self-Exclusion System, one in the vein of the United Kingdom’s Gamstop, which lets users ban themselves from all SRIJ platforms.

Two years after this event, the country also decided to impose stricter marketing restrictions for gambling, lowering the visibility of these platforms by limiting how their ads get posted and where. Many foreign sites have modern responsible gambling tools for users, which limit how much time and money they spend on their casino hobby, but there is no universal self-exclusion at international casinos, only site-specific systems.

Conclusion

SRIJ has, no doubt, built a super mature and well-regulated online gambling landscape in Portugal, giving residents great platforms that prioritize their safety. There is a decent selection of these, and their offering is competitive, although not as robust as that found at renowned offshore sites. Such international platforms remain accessible, despite various blocks and warnings against their use. Many Portuguese players cannot resist them due to their varied features, games, promos, and crypto acceptance. Still, we would advise sticking to SRIJ-licensed platforms for super secure and enjoyable gaming!

Written by: Michael Shackleford