Costa Rica

Overview

Costa Rica is considered to be one of the most popular jurisdictions that offer online gambling licensing. Moreover, the territory boasts of the best telecommunication system, multilingual employees in the sphere and not very tough regulation. Now Costa Rica has over 200 online casino licensees. According to its legislation, the act of wagering occurs not in the place where servers are physically located. For that reason Costa Rican licensees can offer online casino services to players all round the world on a legal basis.

Costa Rica has a very limited scope of laws and regulations dealing with online gambling. Online casino companies are not subjected to regular testing and monitoring, which means that online gambling operators are self-regulated enterprises.

Online Gambling Licensing

No specific online gambling license is required to legally run an online gambling business in Costa Rica. Online casinos and poker rooms operators function under the ‘data processing license’ issued by Costa Rican municipality.

In order to be licensed in Costa Rica an online gambling business operator needs to have a physical office on the territory of the state. To start a corporation in Costa Rica you will need to issue articles of incorporation, register your company with the Public Registry (Registro Público), obtain your company’s tax identification number (Cédula Jurídica), obtain operational permits, and import / export permits if required. Costa Rica corporations have the abbreviation S.A. (Sociedad Anónima) at the end of their names, is equivalent to Inc.

The minimum capital stock of a company is 10,000 colones (approximately $20.00), represented by the desired number of common stock. They must be subscribed and paid hereby you and third parties that form the company.

Costa Rica offers two types of online gambling licenses:

  • Permanent License with permanent office
    Administrative and Legal costs: US $500
    Legal Fees: US $5000
    Yearly lease of office space US $3600
    Renewal at the end of the year US $5000
  • Temporary License with Temporary open office
    Administrative and Legal costs: US $500
    Legal Fees: US $5000
    Yearly lease of office space US $1200
    Renewal at the end of the year during the years that license remains active US $2000.

50 thoughts on “Costa Rica”

  1. Dear Sir/Madam,

    I would like to register a company on Costa Rica with the view of acquiring a gambling license for an Internet betting site (purpose of providing gambling activities over the Internet). As far as I have learned Costa Rican laws require at least two director and 3 shareholders some of whom should be Costa Rican citizens. I would definitely need two nominee directors and two shareholders, however I would like to install my own company incorporated in the Netherlands as one of the shareholders with the vast majority of the shares.
    For that matter we have compiled the following questionnaire which we kindly ask you to fill out:
    1) Is it possible to register a company on Costa Rica the aforementioned way?
    2) What are the costs and terms of incorporating a company and obtaining a gambling license?
    3) Which existing companies have you incorporated/helped to incorporate?
    4) How are the payments conducted? Are there any special terms?
    5) How much time does the whole process take?
    6) We would like to have a Dutch company among the shareholders of the Costa Rican company. Is it possible to do so?
    7) What restrictions can be placed on the nominees to safeguard the real owners?
    8) Could you provide annual maintenance for such company (accounting, tax returns and so on)? What are the costs?

    And one more question could you help with opening a merchant account for such company in reliable bank?

    Thank you in advice.
    We are looking forward to hearing from you.

    Best regards,
    Alexander

    Reply

  4. I am also interested in the above information please and suggestions what country to incorporate the company for tax purposes.

    Reply

      1. Hi HTSC,

        I would also like the above questions answered and emailed to me. Thanks

        Reply

  17. I am a hong kong citizen. I want to hold a fighting activity at every 10pm online and let people in the whole world betting on the fighters.

    How to start such a business in Costa Rica?

    Reply

  21. Interested in the same information as well.
    I also want to know if the information is up-to-date as of 2021. Thanks!

    Reply

    1. Yes, the information we provide by email or other contact form is definitely relevant and up-to-date.

      Reply

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