Legislation
Paraguay – Sports Betting to be permitted in Paraguay
By Phil - 17 June 2016
The Head of the National Gaming Commission of Paraguay (CONAJZAR), Javier Balbuena, has announced that the Gaming Board is preparing to allow a foreign operator the opportunity to offer sports betting in Paraguay.
After the tender process is concluded licences will be valid for five years and only one operator will be permitted to offer sports betting in the country. Balbuena said that the terms of the tender process will be announced within the next 90 days.
Land-based sports betting is currently limited to a single location attached to the racetrack in Asuncion and there is no other bricks and mortar sports betting option. In 2015 CONAJZAR announced that a sport betting tender would also be launched in the near future as the board opens up the market further.
The latest announcement was made after the Head of the Gaming board met with Paraguay’s President Horacio Cartes along with members of the international lottery association CIBELAE (Corporación Iberoamericana de Loterias y Apuestas del Estado), including head of the organisation Luis Gamma. Also present were other members of the governing body Néstor Cotignola from Argentina, Tiburcio Perdomo from the Dominican Republic and Rogelio Fonseca from El Salvador.
Gamma said that there had been a significant exchange of information, and that they had discussed measures on how to tackle illegal gambling and that an agreement had also been reached on the launch of a new multi jurisdictional lottery game which will be used to generate increased resources for the state.
Meanwhile, Mr. Balbuena highlighted the problem of illegal gaming in Paraguay and said that improved coordination with the National Police and the Attorney General’s office was needed in order to combat illegal gambling, and that the government needed to do more to increase awareness of the issue.
The announcements were made as Paraguay hosts the Third Gaming Discussion Group and the First Iberoamerican Gaming Discussion Group which began yesterday (June 15) in capital Asunción. The four day event will see operators and regulatory bodies including The Paraguayan Association of Gaming Businesses and CIBELAE along with members of CONAJZAR taking part in a number of workshops and seminars as they seek ways to work more closely together and share their experiences.
Mr. Balbuena said that members of CIBELAE were working on a number of cross border agreements in order to regulate gaming further in the region. “We are very happy, because for us it is an historical event that the President of the Republic of Paraguay received us for the purpose of getting to know all of the progress we are making in different countries.”
