Peruvian online casinos for Real Money

The first thing that you need to know about Peru’s gambling laws is that it is legal to gamble – both online and offline. The Republic of Peru first passed a gambling law in 1979. Known as Degree-Law No. 22515, with a secondary law (27153), these form the basis of Peru’s stance on gambling. In the Law on Games of Chance and Gaming Machines, the second article specifically states that brick-and-mortar casino, bingo, lottery, slot machines, and sports betting is legal. While initially, there was organised crime and money laundering related to gambling, Peru cracked down hard on this in 2007. Now, everything is well run and regulated. What about online gambling, though?

Online gambling in Peru has been legal since 2005. However, that doesn’t mean that it has been regulated all this time. In fact, online gambling is largely unregulated, and many of Peru’s internet betting operations are available by invitation only. What this means is that Peru decides which companies can (or cannot) be involved in a sort of a closed market, albeit without state monopolies.

For instance, Scientific Gaming was invited to provide online casino games in 2005, and Betsson was invited to set up shop in the country in 2008. Since then, lottery providers, casino operators, sportsbooks and other brands have been casually invited to join Peru’s gambling market. There is no application process, no case-by-case methodology behind which operators are in and which aren’t. The entire thing seems to be run by the good graces of the government.

Officially, all the power in Peru rests with La Dirección General de Juegos de Casino y Máquinas Tragamonedas, although known, perhaps confusingly, as the DGJCMT. This organisation is responsible for licensing land-based betting establishments. Moreover, they also have the power to license online casinos. Even those brands personally invited to set up shop in Peru need to obtain a license from this authority. Because this cloak-and-dagger scheme isn’t open to everyone, we have no idea how much a license costs or the other requirements a provider must jump through to be certified in the country.

What we do know is that Peru doesn’t try overly hard to shut out unlicensed foreign sites. As a matter of fact, many offshore casinos and sportsbooks cater to players in Peru. It is illegal for Peruvians to sign up and play at these casinos. However, there appears to be no record of any resident or national ever being prosecuted or punished for choosing to play at international casinos. Peru appears to have a relaxed attitude about it all. Do not take this as an encouragement to play at offshore casinos – we aren’t advocating that.

All forms of gambling are legal in Peru. Peruvians can choose to place wagers on sports, online casino, land-based casino, bingo, and lottery-style games. Of the online casino games legal in the country, it tends to be RNG table games like blackjack, baccarat, table poker and roulette, which are the most popular, alongside online slots. Some Spanish-language live dealer games can also be played at Peruvian licensed casinos and plenty of offshore sites catering to players in the South American country.

There aren’t any major powerhouses offering online casino games in Peru, at least not directly. There are plenty of offshore casino software providers who do deliver games to Peruvian online casinos, though. One of the most popular found at those casinos is EGT, now known as Amusnet. Pragmatic Play, BetSoft Gaming and a handful of others can also legally offer gambling games to this market.

Players based in Peru can choose from a couple of dozen online casinos, all of which have been invited into the country by the licensing authorities. These sites offer gameplay in Spanish, and they use the Nuevo Sol as their currency of choice.

It is a different story when you head to offshore casinos, though. There, you will find that casinos catering to Peruvians prefer to use the US dollar as their currency of choice, which can be confusing as both currencies use the “$” symbol. Gameplay (and support) may be available in Spanish at these sites, too, but it is more common to find that English is the language of preference at Peru’s offshore casinos.