Portuguese gaming regulator Serviço de Regulação Inspeção de Jogos (SRIJ) has released its quarterly gambling statistics, showing a 7.7% increase in players choosing to self-exclude from gaming sites in Q2, even as new registered players dropped 23.1% quarter-on-quarter.
While the quarterly fall in new player registrations could possibly be explained by seasonal variations, it is still a 9.1% increase from the year-on-year total, bring the total number of such players to 128,100.
This compares with a 118,900 total in the previous quarter and a 93,600 the previous year.
At the same time, the rising proportion of self-excluded players while the overall player pool decreases may be a cause for more concern.