Dominican Republic bill would impose up to 10 years in prison for operating unlicensed slot machines

A bill already approved by the Chamber of Deputies would make clandestine slot-machine operations and other unlicensed gambling businesses a criminal offense punishable by up to 10 years in prison. For PSPs and acquiring teams, the important part is not the headline number; it is the attempt to centralize licensing, inspection, and enforcement in one authority.

1. Rogelio Genao Lanza, a reformist lawmaker for La Vega province, said the bill now in the Senate would strengthen penalties for operators running slot machines or other gambling venues without the required licenses. He said the activity is already prohibited, but enforcement has been weak because responsibilities are spread across several institutions.
2. The proposal would unify the rules and decrees covering betting shops, lotteries, casinos, horse betting, and online gambling under a single framework. It would create the Dirección General de Juegos de Azar, a body attached to the Ministry of Finance but with autonomy and a governing board responsible for enforcing the law.
3. According to Genao Lanza, regulation and oversight are currently split between the Ministry of Finance, the Dirección General de Impuestos Internos, and the Public Ministry, which makes enforcement harder. The new structure is designed to put compliance control in one institution rather than three.
4. The bill would also block the opening of new betting shops and other gambling venues for 10 years. Genao Lanza said the aim is to give the new authority time to organize and supervise existing businesses. He added that the Dominican Republic has more than 70,000 betting shops, and said many operate irregularly or illegally.
5. If the Senate approves the bill, unlicensed venues would be closed and their operators could face the proposed clandestine-operation penalties. The law would apply prospectively, while protecting acquired rights for businesses that already had valid permits before the legislation takes effect. Genao Lanza also said the new rules would include a 500-meter minimum distance requirement, though the text available here cuts off before the rest of that provision.

For high-risk payment providers, the practical takeaway is straightforward: a market with more than 70,000 betting shops and fragmented oversight is being pushed toward a single licensing gatekeeper. That usually means the usual questions become less theoretical and more urgent: which MID is tied to which license, who is actually authorized to take gambling payments, and what happens when the regulator decides a venue was never legal to begin with.