Dominican Regulator Bans New Lottery Shops and Gives Operators 30 Days to Declare Irregular Ones

The Dirección General de Juegos de Azar has used its first two resolutions to stop new betting shops opening and to give operators one month to own up to the ones they opened outside the rules. Declaring a shop buys no licence, and the list goes to the tax authority.

• The Dominican Republic's new gambling regulator, the Dirección General de Juegos de Azar (DGJA), issued its first two resolutions on 13 October, banning new lottery shops, agencies and points of sale, according to Dominican press reports
• Resolution 02-2026 gives operators a non-extendable 30 calendar days to declare, under oath, shops opened irregularly, and reports say a declaration confers no rights or automatic regularisation
• Resolution 01-2026 gives operators 30 days to identify their software providers and warns that sanctions can extend to an offender's other shops and lottery draws
• The regularisation database goes to the tax authority, the DGII, and a commission including the lottery shop federation Fenabanca will validate data pending since 2023, reports say
• The measures came eight days after interim director general Quico Tabar was sworn in, and well before the ten-year freeze on new licences in Law 86-26 can begin

The New Regulator's First Act Is to Stop New Shops Opening

The DGJA formally began operating on Tuesday 13 October and issued two resolutions that took effect the same day, signed by Teófilo "Quico" Tabar Manzur as director general, according to Diario Libre. Tabar holds the post on a transitional basis under Decree 684-26, and Article 185 of Law 86-26 lets him exercise the regulator's powers provisionally, under the supervision of the Consejo de Juegos de Azar.

Resolution 01-2026 prohibits the opening of new lottery shops (bancas), agencies and points of sale, and the installation of lottery vending machines in places where the law does not allow them, according to Diario Libre and El Día. It urges businesses operating in breach to close voluntarily and warns that once an infringement is proven, sanctions may extend to the operator's other establishments, linked businesses and lottery draws "where legally appropriate", El Día reported, quoting the text.

The same resolution sets up the regulator, which will share premises with the National Lottery in Santo Domingo, according to El Día. Files already in progress keep their validity, Listín Diario reported in a piece republished by Teleradio América. An ad hoc committee of up to seven officials will advise on pending files, earlier inspector credentials are void, and a complaints system will handle unpaid prizes, fraud and unlicensed premises, with investigations possible without a prior site inspection. Consortia, concessionaires and operators have 30 calendar days to identify their programmers, developers and software providers.

A Month to Declare, With No Promise of a Licence

Resolution 02-2026 is meant to conclude the regularisation plan that Decree 197-26 reactivated in March, after the 2022 deadlines lapsed with many applications pending, according to the presidency. It gives operators of lottery shops, sports betting shops, racing agencies and other points of sale a non-extendable 30 calendar days from its issue to declare, under oath, premises installed irregularly or outside the plan's deadlines, and premises offering several kinds of betting that each need a separate permit, El Día reported.

A declaration confers no acquired rights, permits or automatic regularisation, according to El Nuevo Norte and Bajo Techo Digital. The DGJA will send the plan's database to the Dirección General de Impuestos Internos (DGII) "provisionally and conditionally" for tax purposes, Diario Libre reported, and a technical commission of the DGJA, the DGII, the Federación Nacional de Bancas de Lotería (Fenabanca) and the sports betting sector will validate information pending since 2023, the two outlets reported. A separate Mesa Técnica de Análisis y Conciliación will review declarations and disputes. Shops opened after the legal deadlines without authorisation face closure and sanctions, without prejudice to criminal or tax action.

The texts are not public: the former directorate's website, where the ministry published gambling resolutions, carried neither on 14 October, and iGaming Times could not obtain them. Reports differ on which resolution does what. Diario Libre's summary has one starting the DGJA's operations and the other setting operator conditions including the ban, but its own body text, El Día, Listín Diario and Focus Gaming News place the ban and the supplier deadline in 01-2026, and this account follows them. Counted from 13 October, the window would close around 12 November, though El Nuevo Norte noted that the dates depend on the published text.

The Freeze Has Started in Practice, Years Before It Starts in Law

Law 86-26 bars new licences for ten years only from the publication of a register of licensees, which comes up to 15 months away under Articles 190 and 191, as we reported when the law took effect. The DGJA has now stopped new shops opening by resolution. Fenabanca called in July for a halt to new shops and the dismantling of irregular ones, according to Yogonet, so the incumbents' federation gets its moratorium early and a seat on the commission that validates the data. The reports do not say whether the ban has an end date or exceptions, nor mention the Consejo, which under Article 14 makes general rules and decides licences. A measure of this reach rests, for now, on an interim director's provisional powers.

The Declaration Window Asks Operators to Incriminate Themselves

An operator who declares an irregular shop gets no licence and hands its details to the DGII, under a law whose Article 162 makes operating without a licence punishable by one to two years in prison. Coming forward only makes sense if closure is a credible threat for those who stay silent. The law's preamble cites official data showing more than 71,000 registered lottery and sports betting shops, before counting the irregular ones the DGJA is looking for. A regulator still borrowing the old directorate's staff cannot inspect that estate shop by shop, so this window is likelier to measure the irregular market than to shrink it.

The Software Deadline Is the Sharper Lever

Dominican lottery shops sell through terminals and software platforms, and Article 163 of Law 86-26 makes it a crime, with two to five years in prison, for developers to build or run systems selling games the DGJA has not authorised. Making operators name their programmers within 30 days gives the DGJA a list of the people who could disconnect irregular shops, and gives them a reason to. Combined with sanctions that reach an operator's other shops and draws, it moves enforcement from the shop counter to the groups behind it, the approach most likely to work against a fragmented retail network.

The DGJA has moved faster than the law required and in the direction the largest incumbents wanted. Whether it can close the shops that stay silent will decide if the next month brings the market into the open or only counts it.