Dominican Republic Passes a Gambling Law With a Ten-Year Freeze on New Venues

Sixty-two years after Law 351, the Senate has accepted the Chamber's amendments and sent a 195-article code to the president. It creates an autonomous regulator, taxes online betting at 10% a month, requires a .do domain, opens a self-exclusion register, and bans new licences for a decade in a country with more than 71,000 registered betting shops.

• The Senate approved in a single reading on the evening of 16 September the amendments made by the Chamber of Deputies to the gambling bill sponsored by senators Félix Bautista and Pedro Catrain, completing its passage through Congress; it now goes to the executive for promulgation or observation, Diario Libre reports
• The law, of at least 195 articles, creates the Dirección General de Juegos de Azar (DGJA) under Article 8 as an autonomous, decentralised regulator with legal personality and administrative, financial and technical independence, replacing a framework built on Law 351 of 6 August 1964 and a 1989 slot-machine regulation
• Online gambling may be operated only by licensed legal entities registered under the .do domain, with a 10% monthly tax on online operations under Article 78 assessed on the authorised website regardless of where the activity is hosted, and powers under Article 79 to block domains with INDOTEL, suspend payments and publish lists of authorised and blocked sites, N Digital reports
• Article 191 bars new licences for ten years so that the existing estate, which official data puts at more than 71,000 registered lottery and sports betting shops, can be audited and cleaned up; a free National Self-Exclusion Register under Article 38 must be checked before access, account opening or prize payment
• Penalties run to 400 minimum wages, closure, licence revocation, up to ten years' disqualification for partners and managers and up to ten years' prison; 10% of all fines fund treatment programmes and a free helpline staffed by mental health professionals

A Bill That Died Once Comes Back and Goes Through

The Dominican Republic's Senate gave final congressional approval on Wednesday night to a law regulating gambling, accepting in a single reading the changes the Chamber of Deputies had made to a bill by senators Félix Bautista and Pedro Catrain, Diario Libre and Noticias SIN report. The item was not on the order of the day and was added after the Finance Committee reported favourably; several senators objected that it should return to committee for closer study, and it passed over their opposition. An earlier version had cleared the Senate in the previous legislature and lapsed before the Chamber finished with it; this time the Chamber's amendments, to Articles 7, 9, 15, 35, 37 and 44, came back to the upper house and were accepted. The text now goes to the executive, which may promulgate it or return it with observations.

The law replaces a framework that dates from Law 351 of 6 August 1964, a slot-machine regulation of 1989 and a scattering of decrees and resolutions, and it covers casinos, lottery and sports betting shops, horseracing, bingo, slot machines and online platforms in a single code of at least 195 articles, Noticias SIN reports. Its centrepiece is the Dirección General de Juegos de Azar, established by Article 8 as the sector's governing body, "an autonomous and decentralised organ of the State, with legal personality and administrative, financial and technical autonomy", with collegiate leadership and guarantees of independence from the industry it supervises, according to a summary of the law reported by N Digital. That is a different design from the June bill that would have turned the National Lottery itself into the regulator, and from the 2025 draft the industry called flawed and chaotic.

What It Does Online, and What It Stops Onshore

For online gambling the law is explicit. Only legal entities holding a licence from the Consejo de Juegos de Azar may operate, and they must be registered under the .do geographic domain; operating outside that register is a serious offence under Articles 75 and 147. Article 78 imposes a tax of 10% a month on the operations of all games conducted online, payable to the Dirección General de Impuestos Internos and assessed by reference to the authorised website "without taking into consideration the location where the activity is carried out", wording the summary says closes the route of avoiding tax by hosting abroad. Against unlicensed operators, Article 79 gives the regulator three tools at once: ordering internet providers, in coordination with the telecoms regulator INDOTEL, to block domains and apps; requiring payment entities to suspend transactions to them; and publishing an updated list of authorised operators and blocked sites so that anyone can check a platform before depositing.

Onshore, the law stops growth. Article 191 provides that no new licences will be granted for ten years, a period in which the authorities are to concentrate on auditing and cleaning up what exists. The Ministry of Finance and Economy's own data puts the number of registered lottery and sports betting shops, the bancas that line Dominican streets, at more than 71,000. A National Self-Exclusion Register under Article 38 will take free registrations in person or online, and operators must consult it before granting access, opening an account or paying a prize. Ten per cent of all fines will fund prevention and treatment programmes with the health ministry, and a free helpline staffed by mental health professionals is created under Articles 34 and 170. Breaches carry fines of up to 400 minimum wages, closure, revocation, disqualification of partners and managers for up to ten years and prison of up to ten years, under Articles 146 to 167.

Seventy-One Thousand Shops Is the Number That Explains the Freeze

A ten-year moratorium on new licences is an unusual instrument for a country writing its first modern gambling law, and the reason is in the ministry's count. More than 71,000 bancas in a country of about eleven million people is roughly one for every 160 residents, a density no regulator can supervise on day one. The freeze is an admission that the state cannot license what it has not yet counted, and it hands the new DGJA a decade to build a register before it is asked to grow one. For the operators already inside, it is a moat: the law that regulates them also guarantees no new competitor for ten years.

The Online Regime Is Built to Reach Offshore Operators, and the Tax Is the Lever

A 10% monthly tax assessed on the authorised website rather than on where the servers sit, a .do domain requirement, ISP blocking, payment suspension and a published blocklist are the standard tools of a jurisdiction that has watched its residents bet with operators it cannot see. The Dominican Republic is following the Latin American template, Brazil's most obviously, in which the payment rail rather than the domain is the enforcement point. What it has not published is the licence fee, the capital requirement or the timetable, which is where every one of these regimes has stalled before.

A Law Passed Over Objections Still Has to Survive the Palace

The bill went through without being on the agenda and against senators who wanted it back in committee, and it now sits with a president who can return it with observations. The 2025 draft drew industry opposition loud enough to be reported abroad; this text carries a decade-long freeze that protects incumbents and a new tax on online operators who currently pay none, which is a coalition of the comfortable against the unlicensed. If it is promulgated, the Dominican Republic becomes the next Caribbean market with a licensing regime worth applying for. If it comes back with observations, the last two years will have been a rehearsal.

The Dominican Republic has written a gambling law for the first time since 1964. Whether it starts the clock depends on one signature.