Within its recent financial results, Portugal’s gambling regulator, Serviço de Regulação e Inspeção de Jogos, has reported that online self-exclusion registrants reached 215,000 in the fourth quarter of 2023.
In addition, the regulator noted that while online gaming gross revenue improved year-over-year by over 16 per cent, land-based gaming revenue dropped by almost four per cent.
Publishing data for Q4, the SRIJ declared a 16.4 per cent increase in gross revenue when compared to the previous year, coming in at €227.4m (Q4 2022: €195.3m). Q4’s revenue was also a 5.6 per cent improvement on the previous quarter’s €215.3m.
From the 17 licensed games of chance operators and 13 licensed sportsbooks in Portugal, games of chance revenue stood at €154.5m, up 40.7 per cent YoY (Q4 2022: €109.8m), while sports betting revenue fell by 14.8 per cent to €72.8m (Q4 2022: €85.4m).
Per gaming type, slots had the biggest share of games of chance wagers placed during the quarter at 83 per cent, followed by French roulette at 6.9 per cent, blackjack at 4.7 per cent, dice games at 3.3 per cent, poker at 1.2 per cent and poker tournaments at 0.8 per cent.
For sports betting, the regulator stated that football bets led the way at 74.7 per cent, followed by basketball at 10.8 per cent, tennis at 9.7 per cent and others at 4.8 per cent.
According to the SRIJ, the total number of players during Q4 was 4.1 million, up 15.7 per cent when compared to the same period last year (Q4 2022: 3.6 million), while the number of new player registrations was 319,500, 6.3 per cent more than the same quarter the previous year.
The number of players who self-excluded during the reporting period rose by 41.6 per cent to 215,000 (Q4 2022: 151,800).
Portugal’s regulator noted that the country’s land-based sector declared revenue of €64.6m in Q4, down 3.9 per cent in comparison to the same period the previous year (Q4 2022: €67.2m), as well as a 15.2 per cent decline against Q3’s record amount of €76.1m.
Per gaming type, roulette led the way with 30.4 per cent of land-based revenue during the quarter, followed by baccarat with 26.5 per cent, blackjack with 20.2 per cent, dice games with 14.8 per cent and poker with seven per cent.
Bingo rooms produced €7.44m in revenue during Q4, a 3.4 per cent increase YoY (Q4 2022: €7.2m) and up 5.9 per cent in comparison to Q3’s €7.02m.
The SRIJ added that the number of requests for bans on access to casino gaming rooms – 139 – fell by 26.46 per cent YoY (Q4 2022: 189) and 10.32 per cent compared to the previous quarter (Q3 2023: 155). One bingo game room ban was issued during the quarter.
In total, 606 requests to ban access to gaming rooms of casinos and bingos were issued in 2023, up 7.26 per cent from 565 requests the previous year.
