A National survey reveals 56% of online gamblers in Portugal gamble on illegal websites.

More than half of online gambling and gambling gamblers play on illegal sites, according to a national survey, which points to an increase in those who play only licensed operators.

According to the survey promoted by the Portuguese Association of Online Gambling and Gambling (APAJO), 56% of nationally registered players bet through  licensed and unlicensed online  gambling  sites. But of these, only 6% bet exclusively through illegal websites.

“In the opposite direction, 44% of players bet exclusively on  licensed sites, that is, within the law,” said the survey, released by APAJO.

With 609 effective interviews, the survey also reveals that of the universe of registered players, about 94% have already played for money in 2019.

The survey found that 42.2% of registrations are still prior to 2016, the year in which sector regulation came into force, with the remaining almost 58% of registrations made in subsequent years.

According to the study, 20% of consumers were registered in 2018 and 52% of these were registered operators only.

Among consumers registered in the first half of this year, almost 70% registered only on licensed platforms.

The survey also points out that sports betting is the favorite of online  players  (66.7%). Tracing the profile of online  players in Portugal, the study indicates that most are men (85.1%).

APAJO president Gabino Oliveira, “this data demonstrates a very favorable evolution in the growth of the licensed market”. “This is a positive sign, although we consider in APAJO that there is still much to be done to combat unlicensed online gambling  in Portugal,” said Gabino Oliveira in a statement.

Looking at the data, Gabino Oliveira points out that it is young people between 18 and 24 years old who most bet on unlicensed platforms, almost 53%, a figure that drops to 29.4% in the group of 25 to 34 years.

In the light of these data, APAJO advocates conducting a responsible gambling campaign focused on young people while effectively combating “ illegal websites ”.

Based on respondents who have already played in 2019, the reasons for betting on licensed platforms are for 63.7% the “highest security”.

The association representing the licensed entities operating in Portugal in online  gambling also wanted to know, through this survey, how much registered gamblers spend. In the answer, the data obtained allow to verify that the vast majority, 62.5%, spend less than 50 euros per month in legal online games.

In a previous study comparing Portugal with other countries, also promoted by APAJO, it was estimated that there will be between 400,000 and 600,000 unique online  gamblers in Portugal, between 4.6% and 6.9% of the adult population.