Damián Gabriel Martínez of SBC Noticias reports on growing frustrations in the Dominican Republic as a New Gambling Bill is riddled with inconsistencies and fiscal loopholes that President Luis Abinader assumes business can just ignore.
Backlash against the Bill cites that rushed legislation risks fuelling tax evasion, money laundering and unchecked market expansion.
The government of the Dominican Republic is set to come to a loggerhead with existing sports betting franchises and gaming halls, which require amendments to be introduced to the country’s new Gambling Bill.
Yesterday, the frustrations of Dominican gaming franchises were televised by a “special report” on CDN in which the irregularities and flawed design of the country’s gambling bill were highlighted.
Trade association for sports banks’ ADOBAD believes that the current draft is dangerously flawed, opening the door to tax evasion, disorganised expansion, and criminal infiltration. The Gambling Bill is believed to have been rushed to authorisation by President Luis Abinader, under pressure to address underage gambling liabilities and to overhaul economic conditions on gambling licences.
President’s Gamble
President Abinader has thrown his weight behind the legislation, pitching it as the boldest attempt yet to bring order to an expanding gambling sector and its investments.
The President views that reforms will usher in the most comprehensive regulatory framework in the Caribbean, one that covers casinos, sports betting, lotteries, online platforms, and new electronic games under a single authority — the proposed General Directorate of Gaming (DGJA), to sit within the Ministry of Finance.
The president’s eagerness stems from multiple pressures. Gambling in the Dominican Republic is estimated to generate billions of pesos annually, but much of it escapes taxation. International watchdogs have raised red flags about weak anti-money laundering enforcement, while the government itself has faced criticism over its failure to clamp down on underage betting. By fast-tracking this bill, Mr Abinader seeks to show decisiveness: a government both raising new revenues and protecting social order.
The bill sets out sweeping new fiscal and licensing conditions. Sports clubs must pay over 794,000 Dominican pesos (around £9,900) for an operating licence, and then an annual urban-area tax of roughly 386,000 pesos (£4,820), alongside a 1% levy on gross sales. Online gambling platforms are to be taxed at 10% of income or, during a transitional phase, charged a fixed monthly fee of five million pesos (£62,400). Casinos will face scaled charges between 14,000 pesos (£175) and 85,000 pesos (£1,060) per table or slot machine. All licences are to be valid for five years, though non-transferable for the first three.
For a government that only months ago doubled annual taxes on lottery banks, raising the annual payment from 35,000 pesos (£347) to 62,000 pesos (£774), these provisions demonstrate a relentless drive to squeeze greater revenues from the sector.
Irregular Design
Operators do not dispute the need for firmer regulation. ADOBAD and franchise owners accept that underage protections must be strengthened, that tax compliance has been too lax, and that enforcement powers are overdue for modernisation. Yet they argue the bill’s rushed drafting leaves glaring inconsistencies.
Raúl Martínez, a gambling lawyer, warned: “The call should be precisely for legislators, senators, and representatives to fulfil their role. They should not limit themselves to uncritically approving this bill without proper evaluation, since it contains glaring errors, has a highly deficient institutional design, and will lead to extremely high levels of tax evasion and a disarray in the gambling market.”
Chaotic Clauses
Central to the controversy are two clauses: Article 75 and Article 97.
Article 75 grants horse racing agencies sweeping rights to operate virtual games and install machines on their premises without paying additional taxes. To critics, this represents an “expansion bias” that bypasses both fiscal scrutiny and regulatory oversight. It opens the door, they say, to gambling expansion into venues never intended for such activity.
Meanwhile, article 97, sets new taxation rules for banks: 24% of gross sales from cumulative lotteries, 5% from non-cumulative lotteries, and an annual fee of 54,000 pesos per agency. On paper, it looks like a sensible tightening of fiscal discipline. But ADOBAD argues the language is so poorly drafted that it will invite disputes and arbitrage. “Everything related to the design of fiscal policy is poorly worded and leads to tremendous confusion,” Martínez complained.
Both articles, critics argue, illustrate the perils of legislating without consultation. Neither ADOBAD nor other major trade bodies had a seat at the drafting table. Instead, the text appears to have been constructed within the President’s circles, with little industry input. The result, say operators, is a law skewed by “exclusive clauses” that privilege certain groups, while ignoring the realities of day-to-day regulation.
ADOBAD: Gambling Bill already Broken
Another worry is enforcement. ADOBAD claims that concessionaires are already rolling out electronic gaming without permits, despite repeated warnings to regulators. If such breaches go unchecked now, critics fear the new framework will only magnify opportunities for abuse.
The indiscriminate authorisation of virtual gaming could allow machines and games to proliferate in unlicensed corners of the economy — from street shops to private homes — making it easier for organised crime to launder money.
While the bill creates categories of “minor,” “serious,” and “very serious” violations, including operating without a licence or failing to report suspicious activity, operators doubt whether such provisions can be enforced in practice. The DGJA may be empowered to suspend licences and block illegal sites, but without the cooperation of existing franchises, its task risks becoming unmanageable.
Thin-line of Order vs Chaos
Franchises do not reject reform outright. They acknowledge the government’s right to impose stricter taxes, to enforce responsible gambling measures, and to rein in an industry that has sprawled into every corner of Dominican life. But they insist that reform must be workable, inclusive, and designed with the sector’s realities in mind.
Their plea to Congress is clear: revisit the bill’s expansion rights, strike out its exclusive clauses, and produce a more coherent fiscal regime. Anything less, say ADOBAD, will destabilise a market already vulnerable to chaos.
Congress on stand-by…
The bill now lies with the National Congress. The question is whether legislators will rally behind Mr Abinader’s vision of a Caribbean-leading regulatory framework, or heed the warnings of the country’s most established gambling franchises.
If passed as it stands, the new framework would indeed be the region’s most ambitious. But without revision, it may prove a dangerous bet: one that risks sacrificing regulatory order on the altar of fiscal urgency. A stand-off is therefore expected at the final sign-off — with Congress the arbiter of whether the Dominican Republic’s gambling future will be shaped by the president’s centralised design, or by ADOBAD’s call for a more balanced, industry-informed framework.
September 15 will see SBC organise a groundbreaking charity football event in Lisbon. Make sure you get the chance to see some of the most legendary names in football by securing your ticket today at https://www.legendscharitygame.com/
