Dominican Republic Enacts Gaming Law 86-26, Extends Lottery Shop Licenses to 5 Years

President Luis Abinader has signed Law 86-26, giving the Dominican Republic a new legal framework for gambling regulation and appointing Teófilo (Quico) Tabar Manzur as interim director general of the Dirección General de Juegos de Azar (DGJA). For operators and payment providers, the useful part is not the ceremony: it is the licensing timetable, the location rules, and the fact that casinos, lottery shops, sports betting outlets, and slot machine halls now sit inside a more defined regulatory box.

1. The law was published in Gaceta Oficial 11263 on Friday, October 2, 2026. Law 86-26 sets the legal framework for gambling regulation in the Dominican Republic, and the new institutional scheme is now being put into motion.
2. Tabar Manzur was appointed under Decree 684-26, also issued on Friday by the Executive Branch. He had been serving as coordinator of the Gaming Regularization Process and will now lead the DGJA on an interim basis. The decree also says the Consultative Council will continue to provide honorary advice and support, including help with public policy design and internal procedures.
3. One of the practical changes is license duration. The version initially approved by the Senate had a two-year license for lottery shops, but the final text extends that period to five years from issuance. For PSPs and acquirers, longer licenses usually mean fewer renewal events and a slightly more predictable merchant lifecycle, which is the part everybody actually cares about.
4. The law also sets distance rules for gaming premises. Under Article 26, gambling businesses may not be located within 500 meters of schools, universities, churches, hospitals, military facilities, childcare centers, state institutions, and other protected places. It also imposes a minimum distance of 500 meters between sports betting shops and horse-racing agencies, and 200 meters between lottery shops. Casinos are exempt from these distance restrictions.
5. Casinos are treated separately under Article 47. They may operate only with a DGJA license valid for ten years, and only inside hotels with four stars or more. Slot machine halls need an additional license with the same ten-year validity.

For high-risk payment providers, the important signal is that the Dominican Republic is moving from a looser setup to a more explicit licensing and siting regime. That usually means more document checks, more geography-specific underwriting, and fewer excuses for everyone involved to pretend the rules were unclear.