Dominican Republic Approves Bill to Regulate Gambling, With 10-Year Freeze on New Licenses

Dominican lawmakers have approved a new regulatory framework for gambling and betting in the Dominican Republic, covering physical venues as well as electronic, virtual, and interactive channels. For high-risk PSPs, the key point is simple: the bill creates a licensing regime, expands state oversight, and adds a 10-year moratorium on certain new licenses.

1. The initiative sets rules for the authorization, supervision, and inspection of individuals and companies that develop, operate, or commercialize gambling and betting activities in the Dominican Republic. It also aims to organize the different gaming formats and improve the collection of fees and taxes generated by the sector.
2. The bill covers operators that work through physical establishments and those operating through electronic, IT, telematic, virtual, or interactive channels. It also brings into scope companies that provide technological, logistics, or manufacturing support linked to the industry, which matters for PSPs and vendors that sit behind the merchant-facing layer.
3. One of the central measures is a licensing regime for gambling operators, alongside consumer protection rules, fraud prevention measures, anti-money laundering controls, tax compliance obligations, and protections for children and adolescents.
4. The law will apply to all individuals and legal entities carrying out betting and gambling activities within national territory, regardless of whether they operate in person or via technology platforms. The draft also excludes recreational games or competitions that are purely entertainment and do not generate economic benefits for organizers or operators, or value transfers between participants.
5. The bill introduces a 10-year moratorium on new licenses for certain gambling establishments, starting once the official register of licensees is published. Casinos in hotels and tourist destinations are exempt and may continue seeking new authorizations under the current rules.

The sponsors say the reform is meant to reorganize a sector whose legal framework is currently spread across different laws, decrees, and resolutions. For payment providers, that usually means more formal gatekeeping, clearer compliance expectations, and less room for improvisation in merchant onboarding.