All gambling in Costa Rica. Casino sites, Betting sites, Bingo sites, Slot halls, Entertainment complexes with casinos for relax, Regulatory authorities. Online Casinos in Costa Rica Last updated: Jul 08, 2016 Online casinos are gambling websites where visitors can play casino games and place bets on sports, celebrities' behaviors, lotteries, and just about anything. Some of the online casinos assist their clients over. Costa rica gambling, casinos, betting Costa Rica has dozens of online companies that provide this tropical Central American country with leading offshore bookies. Bodog.com and BetUS.com are two of.

Rugged. Rainforested. Culturally-instituted. Stably-governed. Those are four words that perfectly describe the Central American country officially known as the Republic of Costa Rica. With about five million people, Costa Rica is a hotspot for tourists — mainly for its Pacific and Caribbean coastlines, volcanoes, beaches, and biodiversity.

Accordingly, casinos and gambling facilities in Costa Rica are greatly lucrative, and they carry a great deal of intrigue that makes them one of the best in the whole continent of Central America.

List of Casinos in Costa Rica

Below is a list of all casinos currently operating in the regions of Costa Rica.

Amon Plaza Clarion Hotel – Central Valley
Barceló Amapola & Jazz Casino
Barceló Playa Langosta Resort & Casino
Barceló Playa Tambor Resort & Casino
Barceló San José Palacio Spa & Casino
Best Western El Sitio Hotel & Casino
Boutique Casino at Tamarindo Diria Beach Resort
Caribbean Village Fiesta Resort & Casino
Casino Costa Rica at Quality Hotel Centro Colón
Casino del Sur
Casino Europa at Radisson Hotel
Casino Tropical at Hotel Costa Rica Morazan
Club Colonial Casino Bar & Restaurant
Coco Beach Hotel & Casino
Concorde Casino at Best Western Irazu
Croc’s Resort & Casino
Crocodile Bay Resort
Crowne Plaza Corobici San Jose Hotel & Casino
Divisamar Hotel & Casino
DoubleTree Cariari San Jose Hotel and Casino
Fiesta Casino Alajuela
Fiesta Casino Holiday Inn Express
Fiesta Casino Heredia
Fiesta Casino Presidente
Fiesta Casino Herradura
Fiesta Casino Yadran
Flamingo Beach Resort, Spa & Casino
Flamingo Marina Resort
Flor De Itabo Hotel & Casino
Grand Casino Escazú at Sheraton Hotel
Horseshoe Casino
Hotel & Casino Del Rey
Hotel Cocal & Casino
Hotel Estela De Fuego
Hotel Layla Resort Casino
Hotel Sierra Resort & Casino
Jazz Casino at Paradisus Playa Conchal Resort
Las Olas Casino at Hotel Riu Guanacaste
Kamuk Casino at Best Western Quepos
Lucky’s Casino Colón
Lucky’s Casino Guapiles
Lucky’s Casino Perez Zeledon
Lucky’s Casino San Carlos
Lucky’s Casino Tournon
Luigi’s Hotel, Restaurant and Casino
Mona Lisa Hotel & Casino
Palma Real Hotel & Casino
Premier Fiesta Resort & Spa
Rio Tranquilo Casino
Riu Guanacaste Hotel and Casino
Royal Dutch Hotel & Casino Europa
Stellaris Casino at Los Suenos Marriott Ocean & Golf Resort
Talamanca Hotel
Taormina Hotel & Casino
White House Hotel Restaurant Casino and Spa

History of Casinos in Costa Rica

The history of gambling, gaming and casinos in Costa Rica is very short — yet overwhelming. Costa Rica gained her independence from Spain on September 15, 1821, after Spain’s ultimate defeat in the Mexican War of Independence.

For some years, the country was still immature and could not move an inch towards her own future. Costa Rica proclaimed sovereignty from a collective Central America in 1838.

Despite Costa Rica’s initial instability, gambling has been generating a lot of revenue and buzz right from the beginning. The United States Senate introduced the Internet Gambling Prohibition Act in 1999. Although it was not passed, the bill brought a great deal of fear to gambling operators around the world. That was when most businessmen decided to move their operations to Costa Rica, mainly because Costa Rica lacked (and still lack) any tangible gambling commission or authoritative body.

When they rushed to the Central American country, they were welcomed by a simple jurisdiction and a lot of potential customers at their fingertips. That was how Costa Rica became a gambling destination, only smaller than Las Vegas.

In 2008, Costa Rica passed a decree to make casinos run from 6 PM and 2 AM, not the initial 24 hours. Also, casinos were required to run their businesses far away from the street, and stop giving customers free alcoholic drinks. Ultimately, they were required to operate in hotels with 59 or lesser rooms.

Current Gambling Climate

Generally, casinos and most forms of gambling facilities and games are legal throughout the length and breadth of Costa Rica. Although Costa Rica lacks any defined gaming or gambling commission or authoritative body, visitors of Costa Rica participate in a wide range of gambling and gaming activities. For residents, however, it is a whole different story.

Some unethical casinos and gambling facilities have taken advantage of this deterioration in the past, and more are expected anytime soon. Most of them pretend to be licensed by an authoritative body known as Costa Rica Gaming Commission, which does not exist in actual fact.

Furthermore, the number of casinos and gambling institutions currently operating in Costa Rica is difficult to perfectly pin down — but with some research, the total number is realized as 53, with the majority in San José, the capital of Costa Rica.

Casinos in Costa Rica by Area

As mentioned earlier, casinos and other gambling institutions are substantially located in the capital state, San José. San José has 168+ table games and 1,136+ gaming machines. However, gambling investors have 53 gambling venues in 26 different Costa Rican cities.

While San José offers 19 different gambling institutions, most other cities offer nothing more than one venue. Additionally, Tamarindo, Sardinal, Quepos, Puntarenas, Playas del Coco, Flamingo Beach, and Escazu all have more than one casino.

Fiesta Casino – Alajuela, located in Alajuela, Río Segundo, is the largest casino in the whole of Costa Rica with various games and machines.

Types of Casinos in Costa Rica

Most gambling activities and facilities are legal in Costa Rica. The most popular facilities include casinos, betting call centres, and gaming parlours. There is a game called Rummy in Costa Rica, which is basically the same as blackjack.

Further, online gambling is legal in Costa Rica but indigenes are forbidden to participate. However, indigenes are not prosecuted for placing wagers on foreign online gambling sites.

Similar to online gambling, poker, sports betting and bingo are legal but illegal for indigenes. Lottery, concurrently, is different and particularly the most popular form of gambling in Costa Rica. Punto Max is a national lottery that operates completely offline. Online lottery shares the same plight with online poker, sports betting, and bingo.

Finally, table games, slot machines and other casino activities are readily available in a typical Costa Rican casino. It is smart to note that most games in Costa Rica have been renamed and with respective twists. For example, Caribbean stud poker and blackjack are almost the same as Tute and Rummy, respectively.

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Facts About Casinos in Costa Rica

– The legal gambling age in Costa Rica is 18 years, similar to most countries.

– Costa Rica is one of the few countries to completely lack a gambling or gaming authoritative body or commission. Therefore, there is nothing like a gaming or gambling license or regulation in any part of Costa Rica.

– To get licensed in Costa Rica, gambling operators buy business or data processing licenses. Each license is worth about $5,000, and can be renewed with the same amount yearly.

– The Costa Rican government is very unconcerned about the opening of gambling facilities as long as $5000 is paid for the license and annually. So, opening a gambling facility in Costa Rica is simply easy.

– Costa Rica has a defined tax system for gambling facilities, which states that casinos and gaming parlours must pay 10% of their net profits. Betting call centres, on the other hand, have to pay their tax according to the number of employees.

– Betting call centres with 50 or lesser employees have to pay ¢20.5 million (57 times a basic salary). Betting call centres with 51 to 99 employees have to pay ¢30.6 million (85 times a basic salary). Betting call centres with 100 or more employees have to pay ¢40.6 million (113 times a basic salary).

– In August 2010, Costa Rica declared they were increasing the tax from 10% to 15%. Accordingly, no press release has been released to follow that release.

– More than 3,000 employees were put at risk of losing their jobs when Costa Rica regulated casinos to run only from 6 PM to 2 AM. The rule made it illegal to offer gamblers free alcoholic beverages. Also, casinos must stay clear of the street and be absent in hotels with rooms up to 60. That rule became effective in 2008.

– In 2013, the Finance Ministry announced the development of a gaming control board. However, nothing is developed yet in 2017.

– There is a total number of 53 casinos in Costa Rica, with 19 in San José alone.

– Fiesta Casino – Alajuela is the biggest casino in Costa Rica, with 14+ table games and 300+ gaming machines.

– San José is the largest gambling city in Costa Rica, with 19 gambling institutions, 168+ table games and 1,136+ gaming machines.

– About 50% of electronic gambling businesses in the world is between Costa Rica and Aruba, and generates $14+ billion annually.

– Costa Rican indigenes are forbidden to participate in any form of online gambling (sports betting, bingo, poker and lottery).

– Games with a random outcome are forbidden in Costa Rica. As a result, gambling is a very confusing activity in Costa Rica. Some casinos classify blackjack as illegal while some happily offer it.

Online Casinos in Costa Rica

Online casinos are gambling websites where visitors can play casino games and place bets on sports, celebrities' behaviors, lotteries, and just about anything. Some of the online casinos assist their clients over the telephone or email to handle quality assurance.

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As of 2000, there were approximately 125 businesses managing online casinos from servers based in Costa Rica. It is difficult to determine how many gaming ventures are in Costa Rica since online casinos are registered as technology corporations, and not as online casinos. They employ about 2,500 Costa Rican citizens (1999 estimate) with salaries ranging between $480.00 and $1,200.00 (1999 estimate) per month. They receive an average of 20 thousand calls per week (1999 estimate) and generate a significant amount of tax-free money.

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Online casinos based on servers in Costa Rica are free to do almost anything they want over the Internet as long as they ensure that citizens of Costa Rica or legal permanent residents of Costa Rica do not access their servers to play the games or place a bet.

Online Casinos:

• Can host any type of gambling games
• Can encourage visitors to place bets on activities or events over the Internet
• Do not pay taxes on revenues generated by the gambling business
• Can not be held liable for not fulfilling their representations to their customers

Online casinos are not committing a crime under Costa Rican law either by hosting their servers with restricted access in Costa Rica, or by calling or emailing their customers overseas to ensure accurate transactions and enhance their customer services for the following reasons:

• No Costa Rican citizen who lives in Costa Rica can place a bet on an online casino because all Costa Rican IP addresses are blocked from accessing the sites.
• The games or subjects of bets do not take place physically in Costa Rica.
• Online casino transactions take place in another country, not in Costa Rica.
• Technically speaking, what online casinos do in Costa Rica is to manage their software to ensure that their transactions are properly assessed and enhance their customer services.
• It is not a crime to call overseas to assist on a bet according to Costa Rica law, and therefore, it is irrelevant whether or not gambling is illegal in the country where the casino is calling to assist on a bet.

Costa Rica is the Mecca of online casinos because it has the best infrastructure available in the Caribbean basin, a reliable telecommunication system, multilingual workers and a lack of online gaming and Internet regulations. To better understand how the online gambling casinos are doing business in Costa Rica, this article will address the regulations of the casino industry in Costa Rica, and how the on-line gaming industry conducts business in Costa Rica. We will also issue a warning to online gamblers playing at online casinos hosted in Costa Rica.

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Owners usually create a corporation that is set up to manage their casinos. Casinos must be accredited and approved by the Tourist Board of Costa Rica. They must be located in a hotel rated three stars or above, and at least 100 meters (one block) away from places of worship, hospitals, clinics, and schools. No one under 18 years old is allowed in a casino.

Failure to fulfill these requirements will cause imprisonment of the owner of the casino and/or a cancellation of the casino's license.

Casinos are required topay municipality operational fees, facility health permits, and any other tax applicable just like other businesses based in Costa Rica. In addition, they pay an extra 10% on the monthly net revenues and for the number of game tables that they host. They usually pay 50,000 colones (roughly $100 in 2007) per table.

It is a crime in Costa Rica to earn or lose money by placing a bet on the outcome of a game/event/activity/behavior, or by playing a game whose outcome is based on people's luck, and not on their abilities and skills to play the game. Therefore, it is illegal to collect or earn money based on the outcome of bets or games such as baccarat, dice, twenty-one, poker, black jack, roulette, and lotteries,except those organized by the Red Cross and educational organizations such as schools. The national lottery managed by the Costa Rican organization called 'Junta de Protección Social' (bingo) is also exempted from this law.

It is legal to play any of the following games: billiards, card games, canasta, draughts (U.S. checkers), dominoes, casino, rummy, darts, 13, Caribbean straight poker, or any game where the person's abilities and skills will determine the outcome of the game.

Costa Rica Casino

Casinos host legal games according to the law as well as illegal games and games that are not clearly defined by law. The most commonly played games are rummy, and Caribbean straight poker. Games that are not clearly defined by law and are hosted in casinos are certain types of games using dice as well as pai gow - Chinese style poker. Casinos also host games that are prohibited by law such as roulette and gambling machines. Roulette is prohibited by the following laws: Article 3 of the 'Reglamento a la Ley de Juegos,' January 24, 1974 decree # 3510-G, published in 'el Alcance #15 de la Gaceta #21' on January 31, 1974, and ' Reglamento a la Ley #3,' on August 31, 1922. Decree number 87,229, issued on June 13, 1978, prohibits gambling machines. However, an appeal was filed against this decree. This appeal essentially allows casinos to host these machines until the appeal is considered.

Since it is against the law to either collect or pay monies for bets or gambling games in Costa Rica, the casino industry implements a payment system to get around these laws so that casinos can hold you legally liable for what you owe them or to be able to pay you at their facilities. Casinos encourage gamblers to purchase tokens that are used at their casino facilities, or they give you a credit line by signing letters of credits, mortgages, promissory notes (I. O. U. notes), or written agreements so that installments or collections can be performed and that they are still protected by regular business laws, and not gambling. There are no laws that protect or regulate either the gambler or the casino owner from collecting monies generated by gambling.

Setting Up Online Casinos

First, create your corporation in Costa Rica that will provide one of the following services: network administration, or intranet administration. It will cost you $1,800.00 dollars.

Second, find a place in Costa Rica that you can set up your office, hire the necessary personnel, and manage your web site from Costa Rica as any other business in the Internet industry. There is an operational permit fee that must be paid of about $50.00 applicable to any type of business.

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Third, block all the IP addresses located in Costa Rica to abide by the law and ensure that no citizen or legal permanent resident of Costa Rica connects to a server in Costa Rica to place a bet with your online casino.

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Fourth, open an offshore bank account. Bahamas, Antigua, or countries in the Caribbean are the most logical places for offshore banking so that you can make your transactions outside of Costa Rica. Financial activities will be conducted through these accounts.