Online gambling in Costa Rica: regulation, licence and market guide

Is online gambling legal in Costa Rica?

Costa Rica is often described as a gambling jurisdiction, but it has never licensed online gambling. Land-based casinos are authorized by the Ministry of Public Security as a complementary service inside hotels and taxed under Law 9050 of 2012. The same law taxes 'companies linking calls to electronic bets', the sportsbooks and call centers that have processed wagers for customers abroad since the 1990s, on a sliding scale by number of employees; those companies hold municipal commercial and data-processing permits, not gambling licences, and Costa Rican law does not authorize them to take bets from residents. Lotteries and betting on lottery-style games are the exclusive domain of the Junta de Protección Social (JPS). A bill to modernize the JPS's powers and regulate digital games (file 25.057) was rejected in committee in January 2026, so the position was unchanged as of September 2026.

Restricted: Online gambling is prohibited for operators or licensing is closed; enforcement varies.

Who regulates gambling in Costa Rica?

• Ministerio de Seguridad Pública (MSP) — Licenses and inspects land-based casinos under Law 9050 and its 2015 regulation
• Junta de Protección Social (JPS) — State body with the exclusive right to run lotteries and lottery-style betting; funds social programs and campaigns against illegal lottery and betting
• Dirección General de Tributación, Ministerio de Hacienda (DGT) — Collects the casino taxes and the annual headcount tax on electronic-betting data-processing companies

Costa Rica gambling licence: how it works

There is no licence for online casino, online sports betting or online poker in Costa Rica, and no regulator empowered to issue one. A company may incorporate in Costa Rica, obtain a municipal commercial patent for data processing or call-center services and register with the tax authority as a 'company receiving and processing data that generate electronic bets' under Law 9050; that status is a tax classification, not an authorization to offer gambling, and it does not permit taking bets from people in Costa Rica. Land-based casinos are licensed by the Ministry of Public Security for five-year terms, must operate inside a hotel that meets the regulation's requirements and pay the Law 9050 casino taxes. Whether an internationally licensed operator may accept Costa Rican residents is a question for the operator's counsel, and the Penal Code and the Gaming Law of 1922 penalize unauthorized games of chance.

What an applicant needs

• No online gambling licence exists; data-processing companies need a Costa Rican company, a municipal patent and tax registration under Law 9050
• Land-based casinos: Ministry of Public Security authorization, location inside a qualifying hotel, municipal casino patent and Law 9050 tax compliance
• Employee headcount declared annually to the tax authority to set the Law 9050 data-processing tax bracket
• Compliance with Costa Rican labor, social security (CCSS) and tax obligations, which the regulation checks before any authorization

Gambling taxes in Costa Rica

• Operators: Data-processing companies serving electronic betting: annual tax of 57, 85 or 113 base salaries depending on headcount (Law 9050), plus corporate income tax at the general 30% rate and municipal patents. Land-based casinos: 10% of net income plus a monthly charge of 60% of a base salary per gaming table and 10% of a base salary per slot machine (Law 9050).
• Players: None specific to casino or betting play; Costa Rica does not levy a gambling winnings tax on players, and JPS lottery prizes follow the lottery's own rules.
• Also: The 'base salary' is the reference figure set each year in the national budget law and used to index fines and taxes. VAT of 13% applies to most services; whether it applies to particular gaming-related services is a matter for tax counsel.

Advertising, player protection, KYC and payments

Advertising

There is no gambling advertising code for online products because no licensed online product exists. JPS lottery advertising follows the JPS's own rules, and casino advertising is subject to general consumer law and the ban on admitting minors.

Responsible gaming

Law 8767 protects children and adolescents from gambling addiction and bars minors from casinos and betting; casinos must exclude under-18s. No statutory responsible-gambling framework applies to online play because none is licensed.

Identity and age verification

No gambling-specific KYC rule; casinos verify age at the door, and data-processing companies follow Costa Rica's AML law (Law 8204) and the requirements of the foreign licences under which their clients operate.

Payments

No rules for online gambling payments exist locally. SINPE Móvil bank-to-bank transfers, cards and cash dominate everyday payments; crypto is legal to hold but not recognized as legal tender, and no gambling rule addresses it.

Notable restrictions

• No online gambling licence can be obtained in Costa Rica
• Data-processing permits do not authorize taking bets from residents
• Lotteries and lottery-style betting are reserved to the JPS
• Casinos may only operate inside qualifying hotels and must exclude minors
• Unauthorized games of chance are penalized under the Gaming Law and the Penal Code

Costa Rica iGaming market: size, players and payments

No reliable public estimate of domestic online play. The JPS told legislators in 2025-26 that illegal lotteries and betting cost it about 52% of its potential income, and the export-oriented sportsbook and call-center sector has been a significant employer since the 1990s (Yogonet, January 2026).

SINPE Móvil, the central bank's mobile transfer system, has made phone-based payments the default for small transactions in Costa Rica.

Hotel casinos in San José and the beach resorts, the JPS as lottery monopoly, and dozens of export-facing sportsbook operations serving customers abroad; no locally licensed online brand exists.

Timeline: how Costa Rica got here

1. 1922Gaming Law No. 3 prohibits games of chance except those expressly authorized
2. 2009Law 8767 protects children and adolescents from gambling addiction
3. 2012-08Law 9050 creates casino taxes and the headcount tax on companies processing electronic bets
4. 2015-07Regulation to Law 9050 assigns casino licensing to the Ministry of Public Security
5. 2025JPS presses for bill 25.057 to regulate lotteries, betting and digital games and criminalize illegal operations
6. 2026-01Legislative Assembly's security committee rejects bill 25.057 by five votes to three; it passes to the Plenary with a negative report

Outlook

Bill 25.057 could still be revived in the Plenary, but its committee defeat in January 2026 leaves Costa Rica without an online gambling framework for the foreseeable future. The JPS will keep lobbying for enforcement powers against illegal lotteries and betting, and municipalities continue to set their own patent regimes for data-processing businesses. Any operator counting on Costa Rica should treat it as a service-company base with no gambling authorization rather than as a licence.

Launching in Costa Rica with GameBridge

Model decided with counsel. Costa Rica issues no gambling licence, so GameBridge cannot recommend a licence route there; operators with Costa Rican service companies run their player-facing brands under licences from other jurisdictions, and whether residents may be served is a question for their counsel.

For a group that hosts operations in Costa Rica under another jurisdiction's licence, GameBridge configures geo-controls to the markets that licence permits, with Costa Rica excluded by default until counsel confirms otherwise. Brands run in Spanish and other site languages with multi-currency wallets, KYC before play, responsible-gaming limits per brand and AML case management, and the compliance dossier documents the licensing jurisdiction, geo lists and payment rails for banks and processors. Certification packages accompany GameBridge Studios and Originals for whichever test house the licensing regulator accepts.

• Geo allow and deny lists with Costa Rica excluded by default
• Spanish site language and multi-currency wallets
• KYC before play and AML case management
• Per-brand responsible-gaming limits and self-exclusion
• Compliance dossier for the licensing jurisdiction and payment partners

Football-led sportsbook and slot content suit the Spanish-speaking markets that Costa Rica-based groups serve under other licences; GameBridge Studios exclusives and the aggregated catalog ship certification-ready for those regulators.

Frequently asked questions

Sources and review

Reviewed against the sources below on 11 September 2026. Regulation changes; confirm the current position with local counsel before launch.

• Ley N° 9050, Ley de Impuesto a Casinos y Empresas de Enlace de Llamadas a Apuestas Electrónicas — Instituto Costarricense de Turismo, accessed 2026-09-11
• Reglamento a la Ley N° 9050 (2015) — Instituto Costarricense de Turismo, accessed 2026-09-11
• Ley de Impuesto a Casinos y Empresas de Enlace de Llamadas a Apuestas Electrónicas, Ley N° 9050 (full text) — Bufete de Costa Rica, accessed 2026-09-11
• Costa Rica: rechazan el proyecto que busca fortalecer la JPS y combatir el juego clandestino — Yogonet Latinoamérica, accessed 2026-09-11
• Comisión legislativa rechaza proyecto para fortalecer a la JPS y regular la lotería ilegal — El Guardián CR, accessed 2026-09-11
• Reglamento municipal de licencias para actividades lucrativas y virtuales (example of municipal patent rules) — Sistema Costarricense de Información Jurídica, accessed 2026-09-11

Regulatory summaries are provided for orientation only and are not legal advice. Licensing requirements change; we validate them with you during scoping.