Panama

Panama is located between Central and South America. The country has established itself as a "tax haven," a definition that came about because of its reluctance to give financial statements to other countries. But the situation is gradually changing.

In 2016, several laws were passed to make Panama's financial sector more transparent.

The main economic sectors that make up more than half of the country's budget are tourism, the registration of flagged ships, and the financial sector. Since Panama is an offshore zone, many foreign companies register here. That is, they do not need to pay income taxes, or their size is significantly less than in other countries with a full-fledged tax base.

Because gambling is hosted in the country and there are special licensing and regulatory bodies, some companies get gambling licenses.

Officially, the gaming industry in the country started to be regulated in 1998, but it only covered the land-based sector. The main regulator is

The Junta de Control de Juegos (Panama Gaming Board). It was on its initiative that Resolution No. 65, regulating Internet gambling operations from Panama, was passed in 2002.

Regulator licensed casinos

Panama review

The Junta de Control de Juegos (translated as Gaming Control Board) licenses and regulates land-based and online casinos. It also performs a supervisory function. The organization adheres to fairly high standards and is guided by additional laws: "Anti-money laundering regulations" and "Customer Identification". These are the main ones, but of course there are also indirect ones, they do not affect the requirements of the licensing procedure so much.

As we said earlier, the Gaming Control Board is part of the Ministry of Economy and Finance. At the same time, the Casinoz team was surprised by the lack of a separate official website for the regulator, where you could get all the necessary information. Moreover, even on the Ministry's website, it is quite problematic to find any information regarding the regulator. Perhaps it is for the lack of transparency of this kind that Panama attracts companies.

An interesting nuance in the licensing procedure is the mandatory requirement of the regulator to hire a local lawyer. He is the one who must provide all the necessary information, including documentation to the Board.

The documents required to open a gambling establishment are pretty standard:

• All the founding documents of the company,
• Financial documents,
• Documents confirming the identity of the owners,
• The company must be registered in Panama,
• Business plan.

The main considerations in analyzing for a license are honesty, integrity, competence, qualifications, experience, financial solvency, and background of the license applicant.

However, there is a rather ambiguous requirement for obtaining a pokie machine license.

The applicant must provide fingerprints.

We have not managed to find out why this is done, so we will attribute it to local peculiarities.

The regulator is generally actively involved in casino activities, although this relates more to improving existing legislation. For example 2019, the Gaming Board met with the banking association. It discussed the possibility of using local banks more productively in the gambling industry. In 2020, the Council took some measures to make land-based casinos more attractive to foreign players by reducing the casino tax on gaming tables.

Note that such activity is due to circumstance rather than understanding or following the regulator's global experience. The gambling industry has started to generate less and less revenue since 2015. Since the gambling industry is fundamental to the country's economy, the regulator has acted.

License types of Panama

The Panama Gaming Board does not differentiate each type of gambling as similar organizations in other countries do. Instead, it uses generalized definitions, which Casinoz finds more understandable for companies wishing to obtain a gaming license from the regulator.

In view of this, the following gaming licenses are available:

1. Casino License is for land-based casinos. If the casino is located in a designated location, it will either pay a minimum set commission. Or 10% of monthly gross revenue, whichever is greater. The casino will pay 10% of the revenue if it is located outside the designated area.
2. The Online Gambling License is for online gambling operators. The application fee is an average of 40,000 US Dollars, and a fee of 20,000 US Dollars is charged for the annual renewal of the license.
3. Pokie Machine License is for land-based pokie machines. The fee will be set depending on many factors.
4. Sports Betting License is for bookmakers. A fee from 0.25% to 1% of all bets must be paid to the Gambling Control Board each month.

Licenses are issued in an average of 3 months. If a company is denied a license, it can reapply after one year.

Dispute resolution

Conclusion

The Junta de Control de Juegos (Panama Gaming Board) is an ambiguous regulator. On the one hand, relevant legislation is designed to make online casino gaming more secure and transparent. On the other hand, the regulator's closed nature is discouraging. Players can't ask for help in case of need and will be forced to resolve a dispute with the online casino directly. As we know, the vast majority of these disputes end in favor of the gambling establishment.

Of course, the Junta de Control de Juegos has recently become more open and is working on improving the legislation. But at present, this is not enough, especially given the practices and work of other regulators around the world.