Applicants are required to have a company incorporated in Costa Rica (for details of the licensing process and taxation, requirements, check the licensing section, below).Ĭosta Rica, due to the favourable taxes, the easy and cheap licensing process, and the pro-business, laissez-faire regulatory environment, has quite a lot of casinos, 30 in total (UPDATE 2021 COVID-19: down from about 35, before the pandemic).

In lieu of a gambling license (because it’s officially illegal) this is a commercial license, and a data processing license in case of online gambling. In accordance with the admittedly few gambling regulations, any company wishing to provide gambling services in the country must apply for a license. The casino sector contributes enough to the economy to justify its existence, and it provides more benefit than the harm it does, not to mention, it mostly caters to tourists, not the locals. The casinos in operation have a special license and permission from the Ministry of Public Security to operate their gaming machines, tables, electronic tables. This rule might seem to outlaw all forms of gambling, and probably it was meant to, but this prohibition is ignored.

Interestingly, gambling is officially prohibited for residents of Costa Rica: It is forbidden for locals to bet, place wagers on games with a random outcome. “creation, administration, sale and marketing of all lotteries, both pre-printed and electronic, sports betting, games, video-lotteries and other gambling products, in the national territory, with the exception of casinos”. However, state-run gambling is actually legal, Junta de Potección de Social, state lottery operator, has a monopoly over all forms of gambling, except casinos (but only has a lottery for now), therefore gambling in costa Rica is actually a monopoly of the state according to Law No. The current main pieces of gambling legislation are the 2008 Reglemento de Casinos de Juegos, or as it is known in English, the Costa Rican Gambling Law*, and the 2012 Ley de Impuesto a Casinos y Empresas de enlace de llamadas a apuestas electrónicas, which is better known as the Costa Rica Casino Law**. Private gambling is officially illegal, but de facto legal in Costa Rica (officially the Republic of Costa Rica) since 1886 (the first country in the Caribbean to actually formally regulate games of chance). Costa Rica Gambling Laws, Rules, Legal Gambling Age, Licensing, Taxation of Winnings

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