Portuguese authorities stop illegal gambling network
Authorities in Portugal have detained two men for an illegal gambling network in Felgueiras and Amarante.
Portugal.- The Territorial Command of Porto has announced that it has detained two men that were in charge of an illegal gambling network in the municipalities of Felgueiras and Amarante, in Portugal.
Through the Felgueiras Criminal Investigation Centre, the authority found that the suspects were part of a network that used an online platform to attract gamblers and then receive a percentage of their bets, The Portugal News reported.
The money won in the bets was laundered through car dealers and real estate agencies, the authorities revealed. As part of this investigation, the police carried out 22 searches and found 58 illegal gambling devices, as well as computers, mobile phones, gaming machines and 15.4k in cash.
Moreover, as well as the two arrests, the police believes that 26 men and seven women were involved in the crimes, but the investigation is still on course.
Portugal has a problem with illegal gambling
The Portuguese Association of Online Gambling and Betting (APAJO) has released a new poll that shows that more than half of online gambling is done through illegal sites. The survey indicates that 56% of nationally registered players bet through licenced and unlicensed online gambling sites. But of these, only 6% bet exclusively through illegal websites and 44% do it on licensed sites.
The recent survey, commissioned by APAJO from AXIMAGEM, included 609 effective interviews through which it was found that about 94% of registered players had already played for money in 2019.
42% of the registrations were done before 2016 when the regulation of the sector came into force, APAJO said. The remaining 58% happened between 2016 and 2019, with 20% happening in 2018. In 2019, among consumers registered only between January and June, almost 70% were registered only on licenced platforms.
