Is Sports Betting Legal in Peru? 2026 Rules Explained

Quick Summary

Yes, sports betting is legal in Peru. Online sports betting and remote gaming are regulated nationally under Law No. 31557 (published 13 August 2022). The licensing regime run by MINCETUR took effect in February 2024 after the 2023 amendments and implementing regulation; licensed operators must verify player identity and pay the applicable gambling taxes. Land-based casinos and slot halls remain under the older Law No. 27153 (1999), while authorized physical sports-betting rooms fall under the Law 31557 framework. Bettors can use licensed local platforms and many international brands that have entered the market, but sites without a Peruvian license remain illegal.

Short answer first: yes, betting on sports is legal in Peru, and it has been for a while in physical venues. What changed more recently is the online side of things. For years, Peruvians placed sports wagers through betting shops with little in the way of a national online framework. The licensing gap closed in February 2024, when MINCETUR began authorizing operators. By 2026 the market looks completely different — dozens of licensed brands, a functioning tax system, and a regulator actively chasing down operators who skip the paperwork.

This guide walks through what’s actually legal, who regulates it, what it costs operators (and indirectly, bettors), and how to tell a licensed site from one that isn’t.

The Short Answer: Yes, With Conditions

Peru does not ban sports betting. Land-based betting has operated under a legal framework dating back to 1999, covering casinos and slot halls. Online sports betting and iGaming, though, needed their own law — and that’s exactly what arrived with Law No. 31557, published in the Peruvian Official Gazette on August 13, 2022.

That law created a licensing regime run by the Ministry of Foreign Trade and Tourism (MINCETUR) through its gaming directorate. Any company wanting to offer online sports betting, online casino games, poker, or similar products to Peruvian bettors legally has to register, meet technical and player-protection standards, and pay the applicable taxes. Operators without that authorization are considered illegal, regardless of how established the brand is internationally.

How Peru’s Gambling Laws Evolved

Understanding today’s rules is easier with a bit of timeline. Peru’s approach to gambling didn’t happen overnight — it developed in stages, with land-based regulation coming first and digital rules following much later.

Land-Based Gambling Came First

Before 2022, land-based casinos, slot machine halls, and physical betting kiosks already operated under sector-specific rules and paid gambling taxes to the state. These businesses had an established legal framework long before online betting received the same level of attention.

Online Betting Sat in a Gray Zone

Online gambling was a different story. Peruvians could — and did — use international betting sites, but there was no clear domestic licensing route, no dedicated consumer-protection framework, and no corresponding tax base for the government.

Law 31557 Created a Digital Licensing Regime

Law 31557 closed much of that gap by introducing a dedicated framework for remote gaming and online sports betting. The new regime sits alongside the older land-based rules rather than replacing them, giving Peru a separate legal structure for digital gambling and sports wagering.

Who Regulates Sports Betting in Peru

MINCETUR is the body in charge, acting through its General Directorate of Casino Games and Slot Machines (commonly abbreviated DGJCMT). Its responsibilities include:

• Issuing licenses to operators for remote sports betting and online gaming platforms
• Approving the technology platforms and domains operators use to reach Peruvian bettors
• Enforcing player-protection measures, including a national self-exclusion registry
• Monitoring compliance and pursuing unlicensed, illegal operators

Under the rules, authorized operators are required to run their Peru-facing sites on approved domain extensions — think .bet, .com, .pe or .com.pe., or similar — which makes it somewhat easier for bettors to spot a properly registered brand versus a copycat or unlicensed mirror site.

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Licensing, Taxes, and What Operators Actually Pay

Getting a license isn’t a rubber-stamp process. Operators apply separately for remote gaming and remote sports betting authorizations, each typically valid for six years with renewal options. They also need to demonstrate financial solvency, responsible-gambling tools, and technical safeguards before MINCETUR signs off.

On the tax side, two separate charges apply, and this is where a lot of the recent news coverage in the Peruvian gambling press has focused:

That consumption tax increase has been a genuine flashpoint. Local operators argue that stacking a per-bet tax on top of the existing 12% revenue tax squeezes margins and pushes price-sensitive bettors back toward unlicensed offshore sites — the exact opposite of what the law set out to prevent. Lawmakers have since discussed revisiting the structure, so it’s worth checking current rates on MINCETUR’s official channels rather than assuming last year’s numbers still hold.

What This Means for Everyday Bettors

For someone in Lima or Arequipa wanting to place a bet on a football match, the practical takeaway is straightforward: stick to platforms that carry a MINCETUR authorization. Licensed sites have to verify identity, offer self-exclusion tools, and follow advertising restrictions — protections that simply don’t exist on unregulated offshore books.

How can a bettor actually check? A few practical steps help:

• Look for the operator’s license number or MINCETUR registration mentioned on the site, usually in the footer or terms section
• Confirm the domain uses one of the approved extensions tied to Peru’s licensing regime
• Avoid sites that only accept cryptocurrency or informal payment channels with no local banking option
• Check whether the brand appears in news coverage of MINCETUR’s authorized operator list

International brands including Stake, Betsson, and Rush Street Interactive have entered the licensed Peruvian market since the law took effect, alongside homegrown operators like Apuesta Total. That mix of local and global names is itself a sign the framework is functioning — companies don’t seek a license in a market they consider closed or hostile.

Enforcement: Peru Isn’t Just Regulating on Paper

One thing that separates Peru from some neighboring markets is follow-through. MINCETUR has reported closing illegal establishments, coordinating with payment providers to block transactions to unlicensed platforms, and authorizing dozens of technology platforms and hundreds of related service providers. That’s not universal in Latin America, where regulation sometimes exists on paper without much muscle behind it.

That said, enforcement has costs. Some operators have exited the formal market rather than absorb the combined tax burden, and points-of-sale for physical betting have shrunk in parallel. Whether that trend reverses depends heavily on how the ISC debate in Congress resolves over the coming months.

Peru vs. Other Latin American Markets

Peru was among the earlier movers in the region, following Colombia’s lead and arriving roughly alongside Argentina’s provincial framework. Brazil, by contrast, only finalized its national sports betting regulation more recently, and Chile’s process has moved slower still.

That regional context matters because it explains why Peru attracted so many international operators quickly — a clear license path is rare enough in Latin America that brands move fast once one opens up.

Frequently Asked Questions