Portugal's Serviço de Regulação e Inspeção de Jogos (SRIJ) has released its gaming activity reports for the 1st quarter of 2026, covering both online and territorial gaming segments. The figures confirm a market increasingly tilted toward digital channels.
Online Segment Leads Growth
Online gaming and betting delivered the standout result, with gross revenue rising 13.7% compared to the same quarter in 2025 — a substantial year-on-year gain that underscores continued digital migration among Portuguese players.
Land-Based Results: Mixed Signals
13.7%
Year-on-year online gross revenue growth, Q1 2026 vs Q1 2025
Q1 2026
Reporting period covered by SRIJ's latest gaming activity release
Casinos and slot machine rooms posted modest growth of 0.8% in gross revenue versus Q1 2025. Bingo rooms moved in the opposite direction, recording a 0.7% decline over the same comparison period. SRIJ has also taken steps to modernise player protection infrastructure, including its mobile-optimised self-exclusion portal launched in May 2026, underscoring the regulator's parallel focus on digital safeguards alongside market data transparency.
The table below compares gross revenue trends across Portugal's gaming segments in Q1 2026 versus the same period in 2025. It provides a clear view of the gap between online and land-based sectors.
| Segment | Revenue change (YoY) | Direction |
|---|---|---|
| Online gambling and betting | +13.7% | ↑ Growth |
| Casinos and slot halls | +0.8% | ↑ Slight growth |
| Bingo halls | -0.7% | ↓ Decline |
Pros
- Casinos and slot machine rooms achieved positive gross revenue growth of 0.8% year-on-year, signalling baseline resilience
- Land-based venues offer diversified revenue streams beyond pure gaming that may partially buffer against digital competition
Cons
- Bingo rooms recorded a 0.7% year-on-year decline, indicating segment-level contraction within the territorial sector
- Near-flat territorial growth stands in stark contrast to double-digit online gains, suggesting structural disadvantage
A Market in Transition
The divergence between a double-digit online surge and near-flat territorial performance raises a pointed question for operators: at what point does incremental land-based growth fail to offset infrastructure costs? A comparable dynamic is visible in the Netherlands, where the Dutch gaming market stagnation and rising illegal share highlights how structural pressure can compound when regulatory conditions shift. SRIJ's quarterly cadence provides regulators and licensees with the data needed to track this structural shift in real time.
For Land-Based Operators Reviewing Cost Structures
SRIJ publishes gaming activity reports on a quarterly cadence, giving licensees a regular checkpoint to compare territorial performance against online trends. Operators should align internal budget reviews with each SRIJ release to identify the earliest point at which fixed infrastructure costs begin to outpace incremental gross revenue gains — before the gap becomes structurally problematic.
The report covers two main areas: online gambling and betting, and the land-based sector, including casinos, slot halls, and bingo halls. This split allows the regulator and licensees to track structural shifts between digital and land-based channels in near real time.
SRIJ data records a significant divergence between double-digit online growth and almost flat land-based performance, but the source does not disclose profitability break-even thresholds for specific operators. Each operator must assess for itself at what point infrastructure costs outweigh gross revenue growth in its segment.
SRIJ follows a quarterly publication schedule, giving regulators and licensees four checkpoints per year for tracking market trends. A sequence of quarterly data is the basis for identifying long-term structural changes, although one quarter is not enough for reliable forecasting.
According to SRIJ.
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