Paraguay moves to replace Conajzar with Dinajzar and tighten gambling enforcement

Paraguay’s executive branch has sent a bill to the Senate that would overhaul the country’s gambling framework, dissolve the Comisión Nacional de Juegos de Azar (Conajzar), and create the Dirección General de Juegos de Azar (Dinajzar). For PSPs, acquirers, and operators watching LatAm, the point is simple: the law would centralize licensing, expand enforcement powers, and put more pressure on unlicensed activity.

1. The bill would repeal Law 1.016 and Law 7.438/25, replacing Conajzar with Dinajzar, a new agency with budgetary autonomy and functional independence. Carlos Liseras, president of Conajzar, told ABC that the new body would oversee licensed gambling across the entire territory and act against clandestine operations.
2. Liseras said Law 7.438 moved Conajzar under DNIT, but that merger has still not been completed. In the meantime, he said clandestine gambling keeps growing in Paraguay, including cases where minors access games they are legally barred from using.
3. He also said the current process is too slow: after a complaint against an online casino or street-based machines, assembling teams and authorizing interventions has taken 15 to 20 days. Under the new setup, that process should take no more than two days.
4. The draft law creates a Department for Combating Gambling Addiction and Responsible Gaming, aimed at protecting minors, and strengthens the Inspection and Monitoring Department. Its staff would go into the streets, shut down illegal venues, and seize materials used in clandestine gambling.
5. Dinajzar would have a presence in Paraguay’s 263 municipalities and 17 departments. The agency is also studying and preparing to buy modern software to monitor licensees and operators without permission, including what happens on platforms and websites.

On the money side, Liseras said Conajzar was collecting about $1.8 million a month through 2023, and that reforms and tighter controls pushed that figure to about $3.1 million. The law allocates 5% of those funds to the agency’s operating costs, while the rest finances Diben (Dirección de Beneficencia y Ayuda Social) and also supports the Health and Sports ministries.

6. The bill also toughens penalties. It classifies violations as serious and very serious, and makes clandestine gambling a criminal offense with prison terms of up to five years. Paraguay’s Law 7.438 had allowed provisional permits for online gambling; the new text would set out 26 licenses to be auctioned by the regulator. Those provisional permits expire in January 2028, and their holders would be allowed to join the auction.