Peru’s Congress is preparing a new round of changes to its online gambling and remote sports betting rules, aiming to clean up tax distortions and clarify who does what under Law 31557, the 2022 framework that legalised online gaming in the country. A substitute text linked to Bill 9645, now back on the agenda, adjusts the Selective Consumption Tax (ISC), redefines who pays it and aligns the law with more recent initiatives against match-fixing.
The headline move is fiscal. Under the current model, shaped by Law 31557, Law 31806 and later tax decrees, the ISC on online gambling is charged on gross gaming revenue (GGR). In practice, however, the system treats domestic and foreign operators differently: when a platform is domiciled in Peru, the operator bears the tax; when it is not, the Peruvian player ends up as the taxable person.
Peru updates online gaming law: tax shift and fight against match-fixing
The new text seeks to end that asymmetry. Congress would empower the Ministry of Economy and Finance (MEF) to set the ISC rate for online games and bets within a band of 0.3% to 7%, respecting the 20% ceiling established by the Constitutional Court to avoid confiscatory effects. At the same time, the effective rate would be tripled from 1% to 3% on entry into force, and the controversial rule in the VAT/ISC law that pushed the burden onto players in the case of non-domestic platforms would be scrapped. From then on, all companies – Peruvian or foreign – would be liable for the tax, on a non-discriminatory basis.
On the regulatory side, the draft confirms the central role of Mincetur as the authority for licensing, supervision and sanctions in online gambling, building on the 2023 regulation that fleshed out technical standards, responsible gambling controls and access restrictions for minors.
A notable political choice is what the bill leaves out. Provisions on manipulation of sports results have been removed because Congress is already processing a dedicated criminal law that would punish match-fixing with prison terms for athletes, referees and officials. The idea is to keep the gambling law focused on licensing and tax, while the Penal Code handles integrity offences.
Finally, the reform keeps the door open for small shopkeepers and “bodegas” to act as local points of sale or agents for regulated digital betting, a channel that Peruvian authorities say could bring hundreds of thousands of families into the formal economy. If the model works, it could quietly become an imbatible reference in Latin America for how to blend tax collection, retail participation and online betting under a single, transparent framework.
