Congress to debate correction of online betting consumption tax in Peru
Congress to debate correction of online betting consumption tax in Peru
Peru’s Congress is due to debate changes to the tax treatment of online betting and remote gaming, with the discussion centred on corrections to the Selective Consumption Tax framework applied to the sector.
Under the current regime, sports betting and remote gaming are subject to a 12 percent Gaming Tax, while a 1 percent Selective Consumption Tax is levied on the amount wagered. The debate in Congress concerns whether that structure should be adjusted to better define the taxable base and the way the tax applies across the regulated market.
Several specialised analyses have argued that, because the Selective Consumption Tax is applied to turnover rather than to net gaming revenue, the effective tax burden can rise well above the nominal rate.
In some scenarios, that combined burden has been estimated at close to 50 percent of gross gaming revenue, particularly where operators absorb the tax cost on stakes, bonuses and promotional activity. Supporters of the legislative correction say the intention is to ensure that the tax applies to actual player consumption and not to repeated movements of the same funds within a betting account.
The issue has also been linked to changes in the formal market. According to sector data, 40 betting operators left the Peruvian market between 2025 and 2026 and 1,500 points of sale closed during the same period.
Industry representatives have also warned that a higher tax burden can encourage players to migrate to illegal platforms.
The measure now before Congress is the approval by insistence of the autograph of Bill No. 9645/2024-CR, which seeks to correct the observations made to Legislative Decree No. 1644 and related provisions of Law 31557. According to supporters, the changes would provide greater predictability to the regulatory and tax framework governing sports betting and remote games, while maintaining the tax as part of the formal market structure.
The matter is scheduled for debate in the Plenary of Congress, where lawmakers are expected to decide whether to uphold the corrected text.
The approval of the new online regulations is the latest step in Peru’s long and complex path towards a formal framework for remote gambling. Law 31557, signed by then president Pedro Castillo in August 2022, created the basic legal regime for online gaming and sports betting and placed the sector under the supervision of Mincetur.
In its original form, however, the law drew criticism because its obligations were effectively limited to operators with a physical presence in Peru, leaving offshore and purely online operators outside the main compliance net and placing locally based companies at a competitive disadvantage.
Lawmakers later moved to correct those shortcomings through Law 31806, signed by President Dina Boluarte and published in the Official Gazette in July 2023. That law amended Law 31557 by refining key concepts and extending the framework’s scope so that it applied more clearly across the market
