Costa Rica: what it covers and what it means for players

For players in Great BritainUnder the Gambling Act 2005, section 33 makes it an offence to provide facilities for gambling without a Gambling Commission operating licence. Since the Gambling (Licensing and Advertising) Act 2014, section 36(3) and (3A) apply this to remote gambling facilities used in Great Britain even where none of the operator's equipment is in Great Britain, if the operator knows or should know they are being used here. Costa Rica issues no gambling licence of any kind for online gambling, so a Costa Rica-based business serving customers in Great Britain needs a Gambling Commission licence like any other remote operator. Advertising unlicensed gambling to people in Great Britain can also be an offence under section 330. How to check a site.

Licence types

No online gambling licence exists
Law 9050 (signed 9 July 2012), Chapter II: 'empresas de enlace de llamadas de apuestas electrónicas' (firms that receive and process data generating electronic bets) pay an annual tax set by headcount: 57 base salaries for up to 50 staff, 85 for 51-99 staff and 113 for 100 or more
Municipal permits and licences: Law 9050 art. 6 keeps municipalities' powers to grant permits to such firms

What players get

No online-gambling-specific player protection regime was found in Costa Rican law. Law 9050 is a tax law and contains no player protection rules.

How to check a licence

There is no Costa Rican gaming licence to verify. A claim that a site is 'licensed in Costa Rica' means at most that a company is registered there and holds ordinary tax and municipal permits. For players in Great Britain the relevant check is the Gambling Commission's public register.

Recent changes

2025-06-19: Bill 25.057 filed in the Legislative Assembly at the JPS's initiative. It would extend the JPS's exclusive authority to online games of chance ('juegos de azar en línea') offered through digital platforms in, or aimed at, the Costa Rican market, including by foreign operators.
2025-11-27: The Security and Narcotics Committee approved a substitute text of Bill 25.057 (secondary).
2026-01: The same committee then voted against Bill 25.057, sending it to the plenary with a majority negative report (secondary).
2026-05: Bill 25.600 ('Strengthening and Modernisation of the JPS') introduced. It proposes making the JPS the sole regulator and supervisor of all games of chance, including digital platforms (secondary).

Context

The JPS told the Legislative Assembly in 2025 that the country faces an informal market operating without specific regulation and that the governing law is more than 50 years old. Its bill cites a survey estimate that illegal products held 53% of the market in 2022 (Bill 25.057, statement of reasons; secondary reporting).

Law 9050 earmarks revenue from the electronic-bet tax for prison infrastructure and police equipment (art. 5).

Not yet verified

Law 9050 was read from a municipal copy of the SCIJ/SINALEVI text (generated 2021); later amendments, if any, were not checked.
Whether the plenary has since revived or shelved Bill 25.057, and the current status of Bill 25.600, as of October 2026 were not checked against the Legislative Assembly's own SIL system.
No reputable legal guide was retrieved to confirm in so many words that 'no online gambling licence exists'; that conclusion rests on the absence of any licensing provision in Law 9050 and on the JPS's own statements that the market lacks specific regulation.

We could not confirm these from a primary source, so we have not stated them as fact.