Let’s start with the truth most providers bury: Costa Rica does not issue a gambling license. There is no gaming authority, no application, no license certificate. What the industry calls a “Costa Rica gambling license” is a corporate setup — a local S.A. or S.R.L. company, a legal opinion confirming your offshore-only operation, and compliance with general business, tax, and AML law. That’s it. And for the right operator profile, that’s exactly the point: launch in 2–3 weeks for a few thousand euros, pay 0% tax on foreign player revenue, and run every iGaming vertical under one company — as hundreds of casinos and sportsbooks have done for two decades.
Private Financial Services has structured gambling operations since 1997 — in Costa Rica, Curacao, Malta, Anjouan, the Isle of Man, and beyond. We’ll tell you honestly when Costa Rica is the smartest first move, when it’s a trap, and how to build the setup so banks, PSPs, and game providers actually work with you. On this page: the real legal framework (including the 2025 rule changes), true costs, the Law 9050 levy, and a step-by-step launch plan.
Taxation
Costa Rica applies a territorial tax system: only income sourced inside the country is taxable. Revenue from players abroad is therefore free of corporate income tax, and there is no GGR tax and no gaming tax — because there is no gaming regime to tax. The only sector-specific charge is the Law 9050 levy on electronic betting data-processing businesses: a fixed annual amount based on employee headcount, paid quarterly to Hacienda. Beyond that, the so-called corporate tax should be only paid once a year.
Specificity of the registering
Costa Rica has no dedicated iGaming law, no gaming regulator and no gambling license. Under the 1922 Gambling Law games of chance are prohibited domestically and lotteries are reserved for the state, but the law is silent on serving players outside the country. That silence created one of the world’s oldest offshore iGaming hubs: an operator incorporates a local company, targets only non-resident players, and works under general corporate, tax and AML law. Any provider selling you a “Costa Rica gaming license certificate” is selling packaging, and sophisticated counterparties know it. Creation of the corporate business involves a range of requirements:
A Costa Rican company — S.A. (classic corporation) or S.R.L. (simpler, a single manager); 100% foreign ownership is allowed, with no residency or nationality requirement for shareholders and directors;
A registered address in Costa Rica, confirmed by a standard rental contract; a staffed physical office is not required, and no law obliges you to host servers in the country;
Effective geo-blocking of Costa Rican residents, no marketing to the local market and no gambling funds through Costa Rican banks — this is the one hard rule of the jurisdiction;
An AML/KYC framework under Laws 7786 and 8204: player identity verification, transaction monitoring and suspicious-activity reporting to the FIU;
Registration for the Law 9050 levy where the activity qualifies as electronic betting data processing;
A legal opinion from a licensed Costa Rican attorney confirming that the offshore-facing model complies with local law — the document banks, PSPs and game studios actually ask for.
The Commercial Code does not impose any strict requirement regarding the minimum amount of the authorized capital, and for gaming activity nominal capital is standard. A bank account may be opened with any foreign bank with no restrictions. One requirement that older pages still list has gone: since 4 June 2025 the resident agent is no longer mandatory — instead a company registers an official email address for legal notifications.
Nothing else is imposed from above. RNG certification from GLI, iTech Labs or eCOGRA, responsible-gaming tools and DDoS-grade security are voluntary here — but they are what separates operators partners trust from those they refuse. And because there is no license, there are no license classes: one company covers online casino and live dealer, sports and esports betting, poker, bingo, offshore lotteries, fantasy and skill games, crypto casinos, and unlimited brands and domains under a single entity.
Term of registering
In Costa Rica, the process of company registration takes 2–3 weeks. We count from the time when the local registrar is provided with the package of required documentation. The legal opinion is issued in 4–5 business days and the compliance pack is prepared in parallel, so realistic time to operational readiness is 3–5 weeks — the fastest legitimate route to market in iGaming. Payment and platform onboarding then runs on your partners’ timelines.
Launch procedure
We run the setup in six stages, most of which overlap. Each of them ends with a document you can put in front of a bank, a PSP or a game provider:
Model scoping — verticals, target markets and the restricted-market list, payment strategy, a check of what your providers require (2–5 days);
Incorporation — name reservation, notarized articles (Escritura) stating online entertainment and gaming administration as the purpose, National Registry filing, tax ID, official-email registration (2–3 weeks);
Compliance pack — UBO KYC and source-of-funds files, AML/KYC policy, market-access and geo-blocking policy, business overview with payment flows outside Costa Rica (about one week, in parallel);
Legal opinion — local counsel confirms the compliance of the offshore-facing model; this is your bankable artifact (4–5 business days);
UBO disclosure filing with the Transparency and Final Beneficiaries Registry, plus the Law 9050 assessment and registration where applicable (about one week);
Payments and go-live — crypto rails or offshore PSP onboarding, platform and game integration, geo-blocks enforced, record-keeping and renewal calendar set (partner-dependent).
This route fits crypto-native casinos and sportsbooks, startups validating an MVP before committing to a licensed jurisdiction, operators serving grey markets in LATAM, parts of Asia and Africa, and B2B companies — platforms, studios, affiliates, support offices — which use the identical corporate setup with no separate authorization.
It does not fit everyone, and we will say so before you pay. Without a real gaming license card acquirers will not onboard gambling flows, so fiat processing is effectively unavailable and crypto or specialised offshore PSPs are the realistic rails. A growing number of game providers and advertisers require a licensed counterparty. And regulated markets — the US, the UK, EU member states — demand their own licenses regardless of where your company sits. In those cases Anjouan or Curacao is the rational next step, often after a Costa Rica proof of concept, with the Costa Rican entity kept as the group’s operations and B2B company.
Costa Rica, Anjouan or Curacao
Three jurisdictions cover almost every offshore launch we structure. The honest comparison, parameter by parameter:
Actual gaming license — Costa Rica: none, a corporate setup only; Anjouan: yes; Curacao: yes, issued directly by the CGA after the LOK reform;
First-year cost — Costa Rica 5 000 – 9 000 Euro; Anjouan 20 000 – 30 000 Euro; Curacao 75 000 – 100 000 Euro and above; Malta starts at 130 000 Euro;
Time to launch — Costa Rica 2–3 weeks; Anjouan 4–6 weeks; Curacao 6–8 months;
Fiat payment processing — effectively unavailable in Costa Rica; limited but possible in Anjouan; realistic in Curacao;
Crypto operations — unrestricted in Costa Rica, which has been the default home of crypto gambling for a decade; allowed in Anjouan; allowed under supervision in Curacao;
Provider and partner acceptance — declining for B2C in Costa Rica; growing for Anjouan; strong for Curacao;
Regulator oversight — none in Costa Rica, so you self-regulate; light in Anjouan; full CGA supervision in Curacao;
Best used as — Costa Rica: an MVP, a crypto base or a B2B home; Anjouan: your first real license; Curacao: the scaling flagship.
Costa Rica costs a fraction of the others because it delivers a corporate base, not a regulatory credential. Price that difference against what your payment and partner stack actually requires. The path we structure most often: prove the concept from Costa Rica, then add an Anjouan or Curacao license when fiat, providers or scale demand it — and keep the Costa Rican entity as the group’s operations and B2B company.
Registration fee
There is no government licensing fee, because there is no license to pay for — the cost of a Costa Rica setup is the cost of the corporate work behind it. Registration of the company for the owner of an online business associated with gaming is 3 000 – 5 000 Euro. The price includes the notary and registry work, the basic package of documents and a legal address for the period of 365 days. A realistic first-year budget, everything included, is 5 000 – 9 000 Euro: the lowest cost of entry in iGaming.
Also, it is worth considering the cost of the following services:
Legal opinion from Costa Rican counsel – 1 000 – 2 000 Euro;
AML/KYC policy pack – 1 000 – 2 000 Euro;
Treasurer, Secretary and President (three managers as per the Costa Rican law) – 2 400 Euro;
One nominee Director – 800 Euro;
Annual support, starting from the second year – 1 500 – 3 000 Euro (corporate duties, address renewal, UBO filing by April, Spanish-language financials);
Law 9050 annual levy – a fixed amount set by employee headcount, paid quarterly to Hacienda; minimal for lean remote teams;
Opening a company account (amount depends on the selected banking facility);
Payment onboarding support (crypto rails or offshore PSP) – on request.
Documentation
package
Certificate of registration (original);
Constituent paper — Escritura stating the gaming purpose (original);
Decision on appointment of the first Director (original);
Legal opinion confirming the offshore-only model;
Tax ID and official-email registration confirmation;
Company seal.
Private Financial Services has structured gambling operations since 1997 — in Costa Rica, Curacao, Malta, Anjouan and the Isle of Man. We will tell you honestly whether Costa Rica is your smartest first move or a dead end, build the structure so that banks, PSPs and game providers actually work with you, and handle every step of the ladder above it in-house.