Costa Rica targets illegal market with reform bill
- Operators running unlicensed platforms in Costa Rica would face criminal exposure for the first time, with prison terms of up to six years proposed under a new criminal code provision.
- Passage of Expediente 25.600 would make the JPS the most powerful regulatory body in Costa Rica’s gambling market, combining operator and oversight functions under one roof.
- With an estimated 297,000 million colones leaving licensed channels annually, the bill’s proponents argue tighter enforcement could redirect significant revenue toward state social programmes.
Esmeralda Britton González, Vice-President of Costa Rica’s Legislative Assembly, has filed a gambling reform bill that would criminalise unlicensed gambling operations and significantly expand the regulatory authority of the Junta de Protección Social (JPS).
Expediente 25.600 was filed with three co-proponents from the ruling Pueblo Soberano party and referred to the Permanent Commission on Citizen Education and Political Control.
What the bill proposes
The bill would give the JPS supervisory powers over the gambling sector while also expanding its role as a direct operator of state-run lottery and betting products.
It recognises the agency in two distinct capacities: as an operator of pre-printed and electronic lotteries, sports betting and video-lottery products, and as the sole inspection and supervisory authority over all games of chance in the country.
A technology layer sits at the centre of the reform. The bill mandates software audits, real-time monitoring of operators’ platforms and algorithm certification.
It also requires coordinated anti-money-laundering work between the JPS, the Costa Rican Drug Institute (ICD), the Financial Intelligence Unit (UIF) and the Council of Financial System Supervision (CONASSIF). Internet service providers would be obliged to geo-block any platform operating without a JPS licence.
Esmeralda Britton González, Vice-President of the Legislative Assembly, said:
“Modernising the JPS is not optional. It is an obligation, to defend social programmes and close spaces for illegality.”
Criminal penalties
The bill’s most significant departure from existing law is a proposed addition to the criminal code.
A new Article 249 bis would impose prison sentences of two to six years on any person who, without a licence and for economic benefit, organises, administers, commercialises or finances pre-printed or electronic lotteries, sports betting, video-lottery products or any other game of chance.
Britton grounded the case for reform in the scale of the unauthorised market. Per the bill’s preamble, roughly 53% of all lottery and sports-betting activity in Costa Rica takes place outside the JPS framework, costing the social-protection system an estimated 297,000 million colones in lost revenue each year.
The JPS channels funding to more than 500 programmes for older people, persons with disabilities and public health services, according to the bill’s authors.
Previous bill rejected
Expediente 25.600 is the second legislative attempt to address illegal gambling this congressional term. An earlier bill, Expediente 25.057, which covered broadly similar ground, received a negative report in committee in January 2026.
The rejection prompted concern at the JPS: communications coordinator Rosario Masís Pérez warned at the time that the vote had removed what she described as a concrete tool to protect social-purpose resources and confront illegal market structures.
Costa Rica’s gambling framework has not been substantively updated for decades, and the filing of Expediente 25.600 signals renewed political will to advance reform. The bill must now clear the same committee process that defeated its predecessor.
What’s next
If passed, the bill would reshape the operating environment for both domestic operators and offshore platforms with a Costa Rican presence. A JPS with expanded inspection authority, real-time monitoring tools and ISP blocking powers would represent a material change from the current framework.
For regulators in neighbouring markets facing similar illegal-market dynamics, the outcome of this second legislative attempt will be worth tracking.
Keep reading
Do you have a story worth sharing?
Send it over to our editors!
