Costa Rica’s government wants to apply a new tax and more controls to casinos and electronic bets

The Costa Rican Minister of Economy, Guillermo Zúñiga, declared in a press conference that the 2 % tax will generate around us$ 85 million annually for the country and is included in the "Bill on games of chance and electronic bets".

State lotteries and bingo halls and the Red Cross are exluded of this tax. The minister said that the bill would allow the control and “secure regulation of this activity”.

The project also includes the creation of a Games of Chance Superintendence, that would be in charge of regulating the activity, as well as a Surveillance Commission comprised by the ministers of Economy, Security, Government and Tourism, as well as other national entities.

With this entity of control, said Zúñiga, they also aim to prevent illegal activities as well as money laundering or cheating, that are often related to games of chance, specially with Internet betting.

According to the Ministry of Economy, in Costa Rica there are at least 300 operating companies dedicated to betting and games of chance, that bring employment to an important number of people.

If the law is approved, these companies are forced to open their Nanking accounts before the Games of Chance Superintendence, which aims to guarantee the “transparency of its activities.”

Zúñiga assured that this bill initiative has been studied for several months, and denied that it as been generated last April, when Costa Rica was included in the list of tax heavens of the Organization of Cooperation and Economic Development (OCDE).

He said that the initiative to regulate games of chance and betting is connected “in an indirect way” to those commitments acquired with OCDE and assured that it is performed within a “worldwide trend.”