Legislation

Lawmaker puts forward bill to modify Peru’s gaming act

Congresswoman Lady Camones from the political party Alianza Para el Progreso (APP) presented bill No. 9645 to the Congress of Peru, which aims to modify certain aspects of Law 31,557 that regulates remote gambling and remote sports betting. The legislative proposal intends to modify the General Sales Tax Law and the Selective Consumption Tax Law to ensure that these businesses pay taxes. Bill No. 9645 aims to impose a tax on remote gambling and sports betting companies, which includes online sports betting houses and gambling sites.

With this modification, the Selective Consumption Tax will be imposed on: “Games of chance and bets, such as remote games and remote sports betting, casino games, slot machines, lotteries, bingos, raffles, draws, and horse racing events,” thereby allowing the Selective Consumption Tax to be levied on these activities.

Furthermore, it is established that the taxable base of this tax will be “applied to the difference resulting between the total income received in a month from games and money bets, and the total prizes awarded in said month.”

The bill also aims to amend Law No. 31,557 to enable the Ministry of Foreign Trade and Tourism (Mincetur) to “close those halls whose operators do not have express authorization, possibly requesting support from law enforcement.”

The bill also proposes to incorporate the crime of match fixing into the Penal Code and to punish those found guilty with prison sentences of up to eight years.

Furthermore the legislative initiative also seeks to allow bodegueros—owners of local convenience stores—to engage in the operation of online sports betting and gambling, as the current regulation only recognizes established companies as operators.

“This regulation does not allow the more than 500,000 convenience stores in the country to generate additional income that would allow them to make a living through the operation of remote games and sports betting. […] The vast majority of bodegueros are not legal entities but rather individual entrepreneurs, which is what this legal formula seeks to correct,” the text states.