In March 2022, Peru took its first tentative steps towards legal online sports betting. This week, the South American country made further progress after the Foreign Trade and Tourism Commission debated the issue and sent the legislative initiative to its fourth review.
The Council of Ministers unanimously approve the idea of a legal and regulated online gambling industry. It now lies with the legislators to iron out any major differences that stakeholders have on the subject.
For example, most seem to support the idea of online bookmakers paying a 12% tax and operators will pay this out of their net income. According to the initiative, 40% of the money collected will be earmarked for Peru’s public treasury, 20% will benefit the country’s sports causes, and the final 40% will go to the Foreign Trade and Tourism ministry.
However, some lawmakers say that before they sign off on the initiative, they would like to have other government entities weigh in and give their opinion on the matter.
The newly proposed legislation wants online gambling and land-based casinos to be under the authority of the Ministry of Foreign Trade and Tourism.
Operators will be required to register their businesses so that the regulatory and taxation processes can be streamlined.
