Trinidad and Tobago's Senate Votes to Raise the Gambling Age to 25, Online Play Included

The Senate has passed a bill that would make it an offence for anyone under 25 to gamble "by any method, electronic or otherwise", in a country that is about to license online gambling for the first time. The House still has to agree the Senate's amendments, and no start date has been set.

• Trinidad and Tobago's Senate passed the Miscellaneous Provisions (Alcohol, Cannabis, Dangerous Drugs, Gambling and Tobacco) Bill, 2026 early on 7 October by 15 votes to 12, with three abstentions, all 15 ayes from Government senators
• The bill raises the minimum age for gambling and cannabis from 18 to 25 and for alcohol and tobacco to 21, and makes gambling by anyone under 25 an offence with a TT$50,000 (approximately $7,400) fine
• It also makes unlicensed remote gambling an offence, days after Parliament lifted the country's remote gambling ban
• Opposition Senator Vishnu Dhanpaul called 25 "an extreme outlier" that would push young adults to offshore apps, and asked whether the state lottery is covered
• The House must still agree the Senate's amendments before presidential assent, and the law starts only on a date fixed by Proclamation

A Government-Only Majority Carries the Age of 25 Through the Senate

The bill, introduced by Attorney General John Jeremie, passed the House of Representatives on 30 September by 23 votes to 10, according to the Parliament's record. The unrevised Senate Hansard records the third reading carried by 15 to 12: the six Opposition senators of the People's National Movement (PNM) and six Independents voted against, and Independents Marlene Attzs, Francis Lewis and Alicia Lalite-Ettienne abstained.

Jeremie told the Senate the bill "seeks to establish the age of 25 as the minimum permissible age for participation" in gambling, citing "mounting concerns about the vulnerability of younger persons to gambling-related harms" and a stage of "emerging adulthood" he said spans 18 to 25. Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar first floated 25 as Opposition Leader in November 2023, the Trinidad Guardian reported then, and announced the legislation in July 2025, after winning that April's election.

What the Bill Does to Gambling

Clause 8 amends the Gambling (Gaming and Betting) Control Act, 2021. A new section 82A makes it an offence for a person under 25 to gamble "by any method, electronic or otherwise", or to enter or be found on gambling premises other than a race track, with a fine of TT$50,000. Offences of letting a "child" gamble or enter licensed premises are extended to anyone under 25. Police may instead issue a fixed penalty notice, which the person can pay or replace with at least 30 hours of community work or counselling. The amount of the fixed penalty is not in the bill: the minister will set it by order.

The age for entering a members' club that is not primarily athletic also rises, from 21 to 25. Clubs matter: Club Gaming Tax was TT$57.60 million (approximately $8.5 million) of the TT$72.66 million paid by regulated gaming in 2025, Finance Minister Davendranath Tancoo told the House last month, according to the Trinidad Express.

Clause 8 also inserts a new section 76A, making it an offence to conduct remote gambling without a remote gambling licence from the Gambling Control Commission, with a TT$5 million (approximately $740,000) fine and seven years' imprisonment. The licensing part of the 2021 Act has not been proclaimed; Jeremie has undertaken to bring it into force on or before 1 January 2027.

Senators Asked Why 25, and Who Checks Online

Opposition Senator Vishnu Dhanpaul told the Senate that "a minimum gambling age of 25 is an extreme outlier. Most jurisdictions set 18 or 21." A 24-year-old barred from licensed premises, he said, "will reach for his phone and open an offshore app that answers to no regulator here". He closed: "This Bill treats adults as children, and children as criminals. It sets fines no young person can pay and leaves the real price to a Minister's Order."

He also asked whether 82A covers the National Lotteries Control Board (NLCB), whose games, including Lotto Plus and Play Whe, are sold by more than 1,200 agents. The bill does not amend the National Lotteries Act, and the Attorney General's closing speech, as recorded in the unrevised Hansard, did not answer the question. Attzs asked how online operators would verify age and asked for baseline figures on gambling participation and harm before commencement. Independent Senator Anthony Vieira asked why gambling jumps to 25 when alcohol stops at 21: "Cannabis is not gambling."

Not Law Yet

The Senate amended two clauses outside the gambling provisions, so the bill went back to the House. A motion to consider them has been on the House order paper since 7 October and was still listed for 17 October. Focus Gaming News, which reported the vote on 19 October, said the law is set to take effect in early 2027 once President Christine Kangaloo signs it; the bill itself leaves commencement to Proclamation.

The Age Rule Arrives Before the Market It Will Govern

The remote gambling order and section 76A point to an online market opening in 2027, and 82A means its first licensees would have to turn away every player under 25. Belgium raised its age from 18 to 21 in September 2024 and saw first-time online players fall 43.1% in 2025, according to the Gaming Commission's annual report, while its licensed operators say players are drifting to illegal sites. The Netherlands dropped its own age-21 proposal. Trinidad and Tobago is legislating a higher age than either, for a market that does not yet exist.

Channelisation Is the Argument Ministers Made Two Weeks Earlier

When the remote order passed, Tancoo argued for licensing over prohibition because prohibition drives activity into "an underground economy". Section 82A applies the opposite logic to 18 to 24-year-olds, most of whom can gamble legally today. Online, the age check falls on licensees, and an offshore site has nothing to fear from a local fixed penalty notice. The bill does offer counselling instead of a fine, but no baseline of how many young adults gamble, or where, has been published, and the NLCB question means the rule could catch a betting shop customer and spare a lottery buyer.

Trinidad and Tobago is preparing to open an online market and to set its entry age at 25 in the same season. Whether the second decision undermines the first depends on age checks, the NLCB answer and the Proclamation, none of which exists yet.