Portugal's licence register: 19 online operators, only 3 allowed to deal poker
Portugal's gambling regulator publishes every online licence it has issued, brand by brand and game type by game type. Read in October 2026, the register lists nineteen licensed brands — and poker appears on only three of them: PokerStars, 888 and ESCOnline. All three carry shared-liquidity endorsements, which is what keeps the tables running in a market of ten million.
Most regulated poker markets make a player guess. Portugal does not. The Serviço de Regulação e Inspeção de Jogos (SRIJ), the gambling arm of Turismo de Portugal, publishes a register of licensed online entities that names each brand, its website, the company operating it, every authorised game type and every endorsement added to the licence since it was issued.
We read that register on 15 October 2026. It listed nineteen licensed brands. Poker appeared on exactly three.
The three
**PokerStars** at pokerstars.pt, operated by REEL EUROPE LIMITED, holds Licence No. 005 for tournament poker, Hold'em and Omaha alongside Blackjack/21 and French roulette, with slots and shared liquidity added by later endorsements.
**888** at 888.pt, operated by 888 PORTUGAL LIMITED, holds Licence No. 016 for tournament poker, non-banked Hold'em, non-banked Omaha, draw-less poker, French roulette and slots. The site's own footer confirms the same licence number and names the operator as a Maltese company, registration C 79655, in the evoke Plc group.
**ESCOnline** at estorilsolcasinos.pt, operated by ESTORIL SOL DIGITAL, holds Licence No. 003 — which began life as a casino licence covering Blackjack/21, slots and French roulette, and acquired tournament poker, Hold'em and Omaha through Endorsement No. 4. It is the online arm of the Estoril Sol casino group.
And the sixteen that cannot
Betclic, Bwin, Betano, Casino Portugal, Casino Solverde, Nossa Aposta, Placard.pt, Luckia, Moosh, Bacanaplay, LeBull, GoldenPark, YOBINGO, Retabet and Vincino hold Portuguese licences for betting, casino games or bingo — not for poker. Several are brands a player would reasonably expect to find poker on, because they offer it in other jurisdictions. In Portugal they may not.
That is the practical value of a register organised by game type rather than by operator: it answers a question no amount of searching a lobby can settle quickly.
The endorsement that keeps the games alive
All three poker licences carry an endorsement for poker *em regime de liquidez partilhada* — shared liquidity — covering tournament poker, Hold'em and Omaha. A ring-fenced pool of ten million people produces thin tables and small prize pools; a shared pool does not. The endorsements cover precisely the formats that need the traffic, and nothing outside those three formats is covered by them.
Two further details worth noting. The register specifies 888's and ESCOnline's Hold'em and Omaha entries as **non-banked** poker, which is the regulator distinguishing player-versus-player poker from a dealer-banked table game that borrows poker's hand rankings. And the price of entry is published: each licensee lodges €500,000 with the SRIJ against its legal obligations, including the estimated balances in player accounts, plus €100,000 against the online gambling tax. That bond is the reason a Portuguese licence is worth checking for.
Read the original at SRIJ — Entidades licenciadas →
Frequently asked questions
Which operators are licensed for online poker in Portugal?
Three: PokerStars (pokerstars.pt, Licence No. 005, REEL EUROPE LIMITED), 888 (888.pt, Licence No. 016, 888 PORTUGAL LIMITED) and ESCOnline (estorilsolcasinos.pt, Licence No. 003, ESTORIL SOL DIGITAL).
Why can't Betclic, Bwin or Betano offer poker in Portugal?
Their Portuguese licences cover betting, casino games or bingo. Portugal authorises game types individually, so a brand that offers poker elsewhere may not deal it in Portugal unless poker appears on its Portuguese licence.
What does shared liquidity mean for Portuguese poker players?
All three Portuguese poker licences carry an endorsement permitting tournament poker, Hold'em and Omaha in a shared-liquidity regime, so players are not confined to a national pool in those formats. Other formats are not covered by the endorsement.