I
ilostmysoul
Rock Star
Silver Level
2 years ago online betting became illegal in portugal. The idea was to make all the betting websites legal, so that they would pay taxes. It wasn't a bad idea at all, but nobody expected it to last so long. Now we also have a legal middle man that confirms the randomization algorithms and hears players' complains.
After 2 years, we finally got the official notice that pokerstars had just received its licence to operate in Portugal today (here is the official document, it's in Portuguese tho: http://www.srij.turismodeportugal.p...ça 005-Reel Europe Limited-Pokerstars-JFA.pdf.
The bad news is that you most likely will not be seeing Portuguese players on the tables again. The reason is that the license is limited to national territory. I've been talking a few people and nobody knows for sure what that means, whether PS will eventually allow us to play with other countries or not.
So everyone is still a bit scared. The official pokerstars.pt website is still shut down for us, and redirects us to pokerstars.net where we can play for free money. However pokerstars has sent thousands of emails to portuguese players welcoming them back to the tables with the promise that VIP status would be the same as pre-blackout (I did not get one I feel left out).
I do think it is extremely unlikely things will change. PKR, 888, Everest, and partypoker, Titan, etc. are not going to apply for the license. Most likely PokerStars will be the only one, and it's unlikely they will ever allow us to play with foreigners. Portuguese players are scared because everyone is predicting that there will be only 1-2 cash game tables, no big MTTs, and SNGs will be open for a very long while awaiting registrations.
Oh well. Better than nothing.
EDIT: I've just been told that PokerStars did apply for an international pool, but we will have a 3 months delay before we know the result.
After 2 years, we finally got the official notice that pokerstars had just received its licence to operate in Portugal today (here is the official document, it's in Portuguese tho: http://www.srij.turismodeportugal.p...ça 005-Reel Europe Limited-Pokerstars-JFA.pdf.
The bad news is that you most likely will not be seeing Portuguese players on the tables again. The reason is that the license is limited to national territory. I've been talking a few people and nobody knows for sure what that means, whether PS will eventually allow us to play with other countries or not.
So everyone is still a bit scared. The official pokerstars.pt website is still shut down for us, and redirects us to pokerstars.net where we can play for free money. However pokerstars has sent thousands of emails to portuguese players welcoming them back to the tables with the promise that VIP status would be the same as pre-blackout (I did not get one I feel left out).
I do think it is extremely unlikely things will change. PKR, 888, Everest, and partypoker, Titan, etc. are not going to apply for the license. Most likely PokerStars will be the only one, and it's unlikely they will ever allow us to play with foreigners. Portuguese players are scared because everyone is predicting that there will be only 1-2 cash game tables, no big MTTs, and SNGs will be open for a very long while awaiting registrations.
Oh well. Better than nothing.
EDIT: I've just been told that PokerStars did apply for an international pool, but we will have a 3 months delay before we know the result.