Simon’s Guide to Gambling in Venezuela

Five brick-and-mortar casinos are in operation in Venezuela (at the time of writing). Obtaining a casino license in the South American state is not at all easy, though. Licensees must comply with the following:

• The casino must be located in a five-star hotels with more than 200 rooms.
• The area must be a declared tourist sector by the central government.

And there are many more requirements.

Before 2007, there were more casinos in Venezuela, but many of them had to shut down due to the heavy increase in taxes.

Venezuela also issued licenses to two online operators located on Margarita Islands, Casino Bar and CasinoOnAir, although both are widely recognised as disreputable* and have since gone bankrupt.

Venezuelan residents, however, are completely free to access foreign online casinos. There are no restrictions or regulations in place.

There have been many Bingo halls in Mainland Venezuela, and its Caribbean overseas territory the Margarita Islands, but due to the heavy taxes imposed on the industry in 2007 many of them had to shut down. In the Margarita Islands alone, six Bingo halls closed their doors to players in protest of the tax increase.

Bingo hall licenses are somewhat easier to obtain – unlike casinos, they don’t necessarily have to be located in hotels, but land-based Bingo halls are restricted to so-called tourist areas, too – .

However, to play Bingo online, is perfectly legal in Venezuela and almost all foreign websites will allow Venezuelans to create and account on their websites.

Venezuelan gamblers are only allowed to play Poker offline in licensed casinos. According to my research, only two of the five land-based casinos have Poker tables. The opportunities for legal offline Poker in Venezuela are quite limited.

Online, it’s a whole different story, though. Venezuelan players are welcome on foreign Poker sites, with some of them even offering their services in Spanish too.

Although sports in general (especially football) and wagering on sporting events is extremely popular in Venezuela, the only legal offline sports books are located inside licensed casinos.

Horse racing betting is available at the country’s four major thoroughbred tracks in Bolivar City, Caracas, Santa Rita and Valencia and at the 1200 off-track betting houses.

Illegal betting is sadly a blossoming business in the country, with estimates putting illicit betting at an estimated 50 and 60 times the legal market*. One of the main reasons for this is the limit of 1,000 bolivars on bets laid down by the regulatory body.“Sunahip” (La Superintendencia Nacional de Actividades Hípicas) is the division of the Tourism Promotion Ministry responsible for controlling and monitoring horse race betting activities in the country.

Online betting sites, that are lawfully licensed in other countries are not regulated by the Venezuelan authorities and players form the country are accepted on most of these betting platforms.

In Venezuela there are several lottery providers, all of them are licensed an overseen by the Comisión Nacional de Lotería.

The oldest one is the Lotería del Táchira, which was established in 1926. Other major lotteries in the country are Oriente Lottery, Caracas Lottery, and the Zulia lottery. Some of them offer their services from mobile, though I didn’t find an option to play online on the site of the biggest provider, Lotería del Táchira.

In 2012 the Venezuelan lottery provider Movil Game Solutions signed a contract with Mobile Integrated Systems to use their MobiLotto cloud based system for conducting SMS lottery in Venezuela.

I didn’t find any info during my research that suggested, that buying online lottery tickets is in any way illegal in the country.

The monetary policy of the Venezuelan government resulted in hyperinflation of the Bolivar, the country’s official currency, recently, which led to a surge in the popularity of the cryptocurrency Bitcoin.
Bitcoin Venezuela, a non-profit educational organisation reported, that Bitcoin adaption in the country has doubled since 2014.

This could provide splendid opportunities for Bitcoin gambling in Venezuela, given the accessibility of offshore online casinos. Also, Curacao, which lies off the coast of Venezuela, is a hotspot for e-gaming licenses.

No wonder most Bitcoin casinos claim to be registered there (in most cases this is a lie).

This could further increase the popularity of Bitcoin gambling in Venezuela in the near future.