Executive Branch reactivates the lottery and gambling establishments regularization plan

Through Decree 197-26, the Executive Branch ordered the reactivation of the National Plan for the Regularization of lottery banks, points of sale, agencies, betting shops and other gambling operators, with the aim of completing the process of cleaning up, validating and formalizing the sector.

The decision comes in response to the high volume of pending regularization requests, after the deadlines granted in 2022 by the then Ministry of Finance, now Ministry of Finance and Economy, for these businesses to adapt to the current legal and tax provisions, expired.

As part of the reactivation, the Decree strengthens the participation of the General Directorate of Internal Taxes (DGII), an institution that will be in charge of verifying the tax compliance of the operators, the provisional incorporation of the establishments to the fiscal regime and the support to the processes of fiscalization and control.

The provision also reorganizes the Advisory Council for the monitoring of the Regularization Plan, integrating all actors involved in the gaming industry and state supervision.

The organization will be made up of a representative from the Ministry of Finance and Economy, the General Directorate of Internal Taxes (DGII); the Dominican Institute of Telecommunications (INDOTEL), the Government Office of Information and Communication Technologies (OGTIC), the administrator of the National Lottery, two members of its Consultative Council, a delegate from the National Federation of Lottery Outlets (Fenabanca), a representative of the concessionaires, one from the Association of Sports Betting Outlets, another from the National Hippic Commission, a representative from the Association of Gambling Casinos and the Coadjutor Archbishop Monsignor Carlos Tomás Morel Diplán.

Likewise, the decree instructs the Ministry of Finance and Economy, in coordination with that council, to elaborate, propose, and adapt the necessary regulatory instruments to enable the effective continuation of the regularization process, while temporarily the administrator of the National Lottery will act as operational, administrative, and monitoring coordinator.

The legal piece, signed on March 26, 2026, also repeals Decree 295-22, nullifying the previous structure and consolidating a new institutional framework for the supervision of banks, points of sale, sports betting, casinos, and other games of chance.