What do you think whats the smallest stake to play there due to that high rake ?

Im mid stakes spin and go player so I can just tell you about that.
So basically all spins have 7% rake comparing this to .eu
0,25$/1$/3$ 8%
7$ 7%
15$/30 6%
60/100/500 5%

IMO you should just try it field is good you will get 500E deposit bonus and also you playing in Euro what is also significant

As far as I am aware, Zoom has a 5.25% rake and regular is 5.75% (I haven't verified). I think NLH is playable with a 6% rake, but playing PLO below 200 isn't on my list, although it isn't 6% at stars.es. Tourneys are fine.

This site (and any .es as so then) likely gets better than average players from the international pool, when some limit is playable. And as the players are still grinding the bonus, it is thought to keep them tougher at least for now.

.FR was open for the EU players and it was a fish pool at lower limits and not too much action at higher, but the .es pool is much bigger (and better known) and the rake maybe some lower.

Portuguese players are getting an e-mail where PokerStars announces the new "Seat me" to be implemented on the .pt platform on 6 March 2018.

ES and FR players already play cash games under this so could this mean that they will merge the pools on this day? Shared Liquidity is now legal in Portugal and Turbo Series end day 4 so everything points towards Portugal joining in on the 6th of March.

Hi guys
Some of you have been to Portugal lately

Possible to declare and be tax resident down there (
I am a European Citizen)?

Yes, just go with your passport to the local tax office and request your NIF (Número Identificação Fiscal). Goes really quick and without problems.

So you mean its tax free then easy to get?

Tax free nope.....but getting your tax-number in Portugal as EU-citizen is a really uncomplicated thing without any obstacles. It took me less than an hour to get it done with the majority of time allocated to waiting.

Are you asking here if there is a fee to get it issued?

i mean as poker pro i need to pay tax and how much?

No. Portugal is tax free on winnings. It's clearly stated on the new legislation that only service providers pay taxes. Poker is gambling so it's assumed no one can make a living out of it and all winnings will be long term nonexistent. In other words the law maker didn't bother with the small percentage of players that make money out of poker.

As for report duties that's a different topic. The main laws of the country state that all earnings coming from legal or illegal activities should be reported. What I assume is that even if it's not taxed you have the duty to report. But here is a very unclear topic, I've heard a lot of contradictory on the matter and I cannot help further.

In Portugal ALL players pay taxes, even when they lose, but no income tax. Seems half-fair, but the losers should be able to deduct the taxes they pay by playing, as it isn't a tax one pays by buying products.

If the winners (at least the pros) would pay taxes, then it would be fine for them also to deduct the taxes they have already paid by playing, plus any near years if they lose (there are such laws also somewhere). But this is fair for winning players as it is now, when comparing to Italy, France and Spain where one pays income tax also.

Declaring the incomes is a very usual practice when it comes to online winnings, leaving nothing unclear and is usually done by the pros (we have public tax records). You should also get useful documents like that of your professional activity.

Why over-complicate it? I was pretty sure he was asking about paying taxes on winnings and the answer is simple: no winnings are taxed.

But just out of curiosity what kind of taxes are you referring to then on the above quote?

on cardschat website it say you should pay 35% of tax on the winning so yeah its unclear...

That's completely wrong. It was probably a mistranslation from somewhere. Only operators have to pay taxes and probably those 35% refers to them and was misinterpreted by the site. As I've said above there's no income tax for players as poker it's considered a form of gambling and they assume no one will earn money long term from gambling thus no taxes for players.

^ Living in a civil law country myself, usually the way to settle this is to just look at the relevant law (e.g. the income tax law or the tax code) and find the paragraph that says gambling winnings are exempted from the general rule that income is taxable, then cite the paragraph in the thread.

That's what I did in the Slovakia legislation thread and it killed any possibility for the usual (in Slovakia discussions) derail by people who heard differently from somewhere but never read the law.

Many people talking ITT say more than they should. These three countries don't all tax poker incomes...

Who is responsible for the stars.es/fr tournament schedule? Are there any reps active on this forum? With increased traffic it would be nice to see some more game variety.

couple days ago portuguese pro Skyboy posted on his FB that based on a source, apparently Portugal will probably begin shared liquidity by the end of the year.

+1

I'm not sure who this person's "source" could be unless someone in the SRIJ itself; as it is, operators are pretty much in the dark here. End of the year is highly pessemstic estimation. I haven't seen anyone suggest it would be this far away; developments this year have been pretty rapid. I think most would anticipate end of this month. If it doesn't happen in H1 it would be a surprise.

Hood, what sirj answered to pokernews.pt is that the ball is on the operators side and they should be the ones telling people when to expect to join the shared market. What you are saying goes in the opposite direction.

thanks for the info Hood, apparently the source is someone from stars support.

Really? That's not my interpretation from their latest article:

https://pt.pokernews.com/noticias/20...t=pn-hp-hero-5

This to me just says "we're not going to tell you anything, ask the operator if you want."

According to this article, PS is awaiting for new software to be authorized. If this were the case, I would still consider the ball would be in SRIJ's court:
https://pt.pokernews.com/noticias/20...t=pn-hp-hero-8

It is also worth noting at PokerNews PT reports that the publication of 115/2018 was the final information to be published on the matter (https://pt.pokernews.com/noticias/20...t=pn-hp-hero-8). However, PokerPT, which has also done a really good job staying on top of this, reportedly received clarification from the SRIJ that this was simply an addendum, not the final shared liquidity amendment (https://pokerpt.com/noticias/ja-esta...tilhe-liquidez), which still needs to be published.

Either way, I guess my main point is: things have moved forward fast, PS just rolled out Seat Me successfully in Portugal in preperation, either all - or nearly all - of the text has been published in the gazette. It all seems to be gearing up to Q1 (so this month) launch, maybe Q2. Last time I spoke to PS, they were hopeful by Q2.

So I'd skeptical that a source would now think "by year's end" - I just can't see what would hold things up another nine months. I can't think what technical hurdles would delay PS integrating into FR/ES tat would push things back such a long period; they've been readying for this for a year as it is.

[I will concede that everything in Portugal is highly unpredictable and seems to hit bizzarre road blocks. As I say, I think operators themselves are struggling to predict things.]

https://pt.pokernews.com/noticias/20...t=pn-hp-hero-9

Final text was published on February 16. Almost 1 month after we still have no clue when we will join.