Dominican Republic approves new law to regulate gambling, online operators face 10% monthly tax

The Senate of the Dominican Republic has approved a new general framework for gambling, including online play, identity checks tied to the national electoral register, and a 10-year freeze on new licenses for gambling venues. For PSPs and acquirers, the useful part is not the headline—it is the enforcement toolkit: domain blocking, payment suspension requests, and a formal self-exclusion register that operators must check before taking deposits or paying out winnings.

1. The law creates the Dirección General de Juegos de Azar, a specialized supervisory body with collegial leadership, replacing older rules that have governed the sector for decades. The bill was introduced by senators Félix Bautista and Pedro Catrain, approved by the Chamber of Deputies with amendments, and then accepted by the Senate.
2. For online platforms, operators must verify user identity using the national ID card and records from the Junta Central Electoral (JCE) before enabling deposits or bets. That is a practical compliance gate, not a decorative one: the law makes identity verification a precondition for taking money.
3. The legislation also establishes a free National Self-Exclusion Register, available both in person and electronically. Anyone included in the register may not access gambling venues in the country, and operators must consult it before allowing entry, opening accounts, or processing prize payments.
4. Licensed premises must also respect a minimum distance of 500 meters from sensitive locations, including schools, universities, hospitals, churches, military barracks, and state institutions. On paper that sounds like zoning; in practice it is a site-selection constraint that can kill marginal locations before they ever open.
5. Online gambling now gets a specific regime: operators need a license, must register under the .do geographic domain, and will face a 10% monthly tax on internet operations. For unauthorized operators, the regulator may request domain and app blocking, coordinate transaction suspensions through payment entities, and publish updated lists of authorized platforms and blocked sites.
6. The law freezes the issuance of new gambling venue licenses for 10 years. That period is meant to strengthen supervision and control over existing operators before any future expansion is allowed.
7. The sanctions package includes fines of up to 400 minimum salaries, closure of establishments, license revocation, disqualification of partners and administrators, and prison terms of up to 10 years for certain violations. The law also assigns 10% of sector fines to resources for treating ludopatía (gambling addiction).