Peru regulator wants to formalize online casino, sports betting

Peru’s land-based gaming overseer wants legislators to approve rules that restrict online gambling to companies with a physical presence in the country.

On Tuesday, Manuel San Román Benavente (pictured), the head of Peru’s gaming regulatory body La Dirección General de Juegos de Casino y Máquinas Tragamonedas (DGJCMT), told local media outlet Portal de Turismo that his group had worked with the Financial Intelligence Unit to craft a bill it plans to submit to Peru’s Congress that would regulate online sports betting and casino games.

For the record, this isn’t the first time Román has made such a claim. In June, he was telling media that online legislation would be introduced in Congress by the end of July. But it seems that the Ministry of Foreign Trade and Tourism, to which the DGJCMT reports, has yet to give the online bill its official seal of approval.

Online gambling is neither legal nor illegal in Peru; the activity is simply tolerated. Peru’s Civil Code allows pretty much all forms of gaming except greyhound racing and gaming machines aimed at minors. But Román wants the government to codify certain online rules to benefit companies that already have boots on the ground.