Dominican Republic Bill Would Restructure National Lottery as Independent Gambling Regulator

• Senator Pedro Tineo (PRM-Monte Plata) has filed a Senate bill that would convert the National Lottery (Loteria Nacional) from a Ministry of Finance and Economy unit into an autonomous state body governing all gambling regulation in the Dominican Republic
• The bill would consolidate licensing, inspection, regulation and sanctioning of lottery banks, sports betting shops, casinos and electronic games under a single authority, ending the split oversight currently shared with the Directorate of Casinos and Games of Chance
• The legislation arrives alongside Decree 197-26, issued on 26 March 2026, which reactivated the National Regularisation Plan for an estimated 93,000 betting outlets after the 2022 deadlines lapsed
• A separate Ministry of Finance and Economy fiscal package, presented on 11 June 2026, seeks DOP 40 billion to 50 billion (approximately $665 million to $830 million) a year and flags higher taxation on casinos and games of chance without yet publishing rates
• If enacted, the reform would push the Dominican Republic towards the single-regulator model already used in comparable Latin American markets such as Colombia, where Coljuegos administers the sector under a unified mandate

Single Bill Would Hand the National Lottery Authority Over Every Form of Gambling

Senator Pedro Tineo, who represents Monte Plata for the governing Partido Revolucionario Moderno (PRM), submitted the bill to the Dominican Senate on 13 May 2026, according to El Caribe and Listin Diario. The legislation would transform the National Lottery (Loteria Nacional) into a decentralised state institution attached to the Ministry of Finance and Economy, with legal personality, its own assets and full administrative, economic, financial and technical autonomy. Under the text, the Lottery would become the governing body for lottery banks, sports betting banks, casinos, electronic games and other games of chance, exercising supervision, inspection, regulation and sanctioning powers across the entire sector.

At present those functions are divided. The National Lottery chiefly administers traditional draws, while the Directorate of Casinos and Games of Chance, sitting within the Ministry of Finance and Economy, holds most legal and administrative competencies over casinos and betting. Tineo argues that the fragmented arrangement has allowed an irregular proliferation of betting banks, tax evasion, illegal operation and weak controls, and that a single body is needed to update the rules that govern the National Lottery and build a more equitable tax framework. Tax collection itself would remain with the General Directorate of Internal Taxes (DGII), preserving the separation between regulator and revenue authority.

The legislative push does not stand alone. Decree 197-26, issued by President Luis Abinader on 26 March 2026 and reported by the Presidency, reactivated the National Regularisation Plan for lottery banks, points of sale, agencies and sports betting shops, repealing the earlier Decree 295-22 and building on the 2022 framework under which more than 93,000 outlets had voluntarily registered. Teofilo Quico Tabar, administrator of the National Lottery, was named temporary coordinator of the plan, a role the Lottery's Advisory Council has publicly endorsed. Separately, the Executive branch has advanced its own proposal to create a General Directorate of Gaming and Gambling, indicating that more than one structural route to a unified regulator is live in the Congress at the same time.

Fiscal Package Frames Gambling as a Revenue Target

The regulatory debate runs in parallel with a fiscal consolidation drive. On 11 June 2026, Minister of Finance and Economy Magin Diaz presented an anti-crisis plan that the Government says would raise an additional DOP 40 billion to 50 billion (approximately $665 million to $830 million) a year. Its centrepiece is a three-percentage-point surcharge on the Corporate Income Tax, lifting the rate to 30% for three years and so through 2028. The surcharge would apply only to large taxpayers with annual revenue above DOP 1 billion (approximately $16.7 million), a band that the ministry says covers little more than 1,000 of the roughly 140,000 companies that filed corporate income tax returns in 2025, or under 0.8% of the total. Diaz framed the package around four dimensions: pro-growth measures, tax simplification, combating evasion and fiscal consolidation.

The plan also lists higher financial-transaction levies and, explicitly, increased taxation of casinos and games of chance, although specific gambling rates have not been published. Together the regulatory and fiscal initiatives signal that the Dominican gaming market is being repositioned as both a governance problem and a fiscal resource.

How the Reform Compares Across the Region

A single licensing-to-enforcement authority would align the Dominican Republic with the direction of travel elsewhere in the region. Colombia, the regional pioneer, regulates games of chance through Coljuegos under Law 643 of 2001 and authorised online gaming from 2016, and its regulator has since moved to issue website-blocking orders directly to internet service providers. Brazil consolidated oversight of fixed-odds betting under the Secretariat of Prizes and Bets (SPA) within its Ministry of Finance, which had licensed dozens of operators by mid-2026. The Dominican bill's logic, concentrating inspection and sanctioning in one accountable institution, mirrors that consolidation trend even as the precise institutional vehicle, whether the National Lottery or a new directorate, remains contested in Santo Domingo.

Consolidation Closes the Gap That Split Oversight Created

Channelisation depends on a regulator that can license quickly and police credibly, and divided authority undermines both. By placing lottery banks, sports betting, casinos and electronic games under one body, Tineo's bill targets the seam between the National Lottery and the Directorate of Casinos and Games of Chance through which unlicensed operators have historically slipped. The 93,000 outlets logged under the regularisation plan show the scale of the informal layer a unified regulator would have to absorb, and a single front door for licensing is the precondition for converting that informal activity into a measurable, taxable channel.

The Fiscal Logic Only Works If the Regulator Can See the Base

The Government's revenue ambitions and its regulatory ambitions are interdependent. A DOP 40 billion to 50 billion (approximately $665 million to $830 million) target and a flagged casino tax increase assume an operator base that is registered, audited and visible, which is precisely what fragmented oversight has not delivered. Keeping collection with the DGII while concentrating supervision in one regulator is a sensible division of labour, but the fiscal upside hinges on the regularisation plan succeeding first, because a tax can only reach operators the state has already brought inside the perimeter.

The Enforcement Gap Is Cross-Border, Not Just Domestic

Land-based bancas are only part of the exposure. As Colombia's move to direct ISP blocking shows, the harder enforcement frontier for any Latin American regulator is the offshore online operator that serves players without a local licence, and a statute focused on physical outlets and casinos risks under-equipping the new authority for that fight. Whether the Dominican body emerges as the National Lottery or a new directorate, its enabling law will need explicit online licensing, payment-blocking and site-blocking tools to match the channels through which modern gambling actually flows.

The bottom line: the Dominican Republic is moving decisively from split oversight towards a single gambling regulator while simultaneously eyeing the sector for fresh revenue, a combination that only pays off if regularisation and consolidation land before the tax does. With Tineo's Senate bill, a competing executive proposal and Decree 197-26 all in play, the open question is no longer whether the country centralises gambling regulation but which institution ends up holding the mandate.