How to get a gambling licence in Ecuador: fees and steps

A single authority licenses this activity and also sets its advertising rules. A second, separate authority oversees anti-money-laundering compliance.

• The ente rector del deporte, the national sport-governing body, ‘or whoever exercises that function’, is the sole licensing authority: it grants, renews, suspends and revokes the licencia para operadores de pronósticos deportivos, the sole título habilitante for this activity (Decreto 422 arts. 232-233, 235-236). The decree names a function, not a fixed ministry. Under the Acuerdo, applications are filed with the Viceministerio del Deporte and run by a Dirección de Gestión de Pronósticos Deportivos, which keeps the national register of operators and the national register of self-excluded persons; until it is created, the Dirección Supervisión y Defensa al Deporte performs its functions (Acuerdo arts. 14, 15, 62; Disposición Transitoria Tercera).
• The same ente rector both licenses operators and sets and enforces the advertising conditions for the activity: there is no separate advertising regulator for it (arts. 233(c), 252).
• The Unidad de Análisis Financiero y Económico (UAFE), Ecuador’s national AML authority, is a second regulator for AML purposes: pronósticos-deportivos operators became UAFE-obligated subjects under Resolución UAFE-DG-2026-0005 (13 April 2026). The ente rector must also run its own Unidad Complementaria Antilavado alongside the UAFE (art. 231).

Laws that apply

• Ley Orgánica del Deporte, la Educación Física y la Recreación (Registro Oficial 6º Suplemento 223, 11 February 2026), arts. 217-218: defines pronósticos deportivos and its operators; creates no licensing regime of its own.
• Decreto Ejecutivo 422, Registro Oficial Año II, Quinto Suplemento 305 (15 June 2026), Títulos IX-X (arts. 228-257): the licensing, operating, tax-filing, AML and enforcement regime for pronósticos deportivos, plus its Disposiciones Transitorias and Disposición Reformatoria Única; art. 235 replaced by Decreto Ejecutivo 445 (RO 6º Suplemento 323, 10 July 2026), which limits the licence to sports forecasting.
• Acuerdo Ministerial MINEDEC-MINEDEC-2026-00078-A (Ministerio de Educación, Deporte y Cultura), signed 17 September 2026, in force from signature, Registro Oficial Suplemento 383 (5 October 2026), 86 articles: licensing requirements and procedure (arts. 7-24), operation, accounts, bonuses, integrity and AML (arts. 25-59), responsible gambling and the self-exclusion register (arts. 60-62), advertising (arts. 63-65), reports (arts. 66-67), laboratory accreditation (arts. 68-77), sanctions and blocking (arts. 78-84).
• Ley de Régimen Tributario Interno (LRTI), Capítulo VII-A, arts. 35.1-35.9 (the IRUPD, a single 15% operator tax) and art. 36(c) (15% withholding on each player prize).
• Ley Orgánica de Prevención, Detección y Combate del Delito de Lavado de Activos y de la Financiación de Otros Delitos (the AML Ley), consolidated text, última reforma 3 October 2025; and Resolución UAFE-DG-2026-0005 (13 April 2026), which designates pronósticos-deportivos operators as UAFE-obligated subjects.
• Código Orgánico Integral Penal, art. 236: running casinos, gaming halls, betting houses or businesses dedicated to games of chance is a crime (one to three years), after the 2011 consulta popular that banned casinos and gaming halls.
• Código Orgánico Administrativo, arts. 203-209 and 217-232: appeals against licensing decisions, and the general procedural rules where the Acuerdo sets none.

The framework rests on the sport law, Decreto 422 and the ministry’s licensing rules, all of 2026, plus an AML designation issued ahead of the licensing decree itself.

There is no B2B licence and no per-product licence. One licence, held by the operator, covers everything it offers on its own platform.

• One licence: la licencia para operadores de pronósticos deportivos, for sports forecasting through digital platforms on the operator’s own platform only (art. 235, as replaced by Decreto 445 of 10 July 2026, which removed the earlier ‘juegos online’). There is no casino, bingo or other product licence, and online casino games have no licence route. The Penal Code still punishes running a business dedicated to games of chance (COIP art. 236).
• No B2B licence category exists. Título IX regulates only the single operator licence; platform, hosting, aggregator, game-supply, payment-provider, affiliate and marketing-agency businesses are not licensed separately (arts. 235-238). A supplier that itself offers forecasts to players in Ecuador is an operator and needs the licence; one that supplies a licensed operator does not (Acuerdo arts. 5.34, 5.36, 7).
• Term: five years from notification of the grant (Acuerdo art. 16; Decreto 422 art. 240: maximum five years), renewable on the same legal, financial, technical and operational requirements as a first grant (art. 239). The renewal request is filed at least 90 days before expiry; filed in time, the licence stays valid until the resolution is notified (Acuerdo art. 16).
• No standing application window: arts. 237-239 read as an open, non-competitive process available at any time. The only fixed deadline in the texts is transitional: operators already running a platform before 15 June 2026 had 90 business days, counted from the day after that date, to file for authorisation; counting weekdays only the window ended on 19 October 2026, and public holidays inside it move the closing day later, so the date should be confirmed with the ministry (Transitoria Décima).

Any person can apply once domiciled or resident in Ecuador and free of a defined set of disqualifications. The file is heavy on backward-looking financial evidence rather than forward projections.

• The applicant must be a natural or legal person resident or domiciled in Ecuador whose registered economic activity expressly includes pronósticos deportivos, evidenced by its RUC and domicile/residence proof (art. 237; 239.1(d), (f)). No nationality or EU/EEA distinction is drawn: any foreign legal person can qualify once domiciled or resident on these terms.
• Local domiciliation is mandatory: a foreign company applies through a branch domiciled in Ecuador with the approval of the Superintendencia de Compañías, Valores y Seguros, or through a company incorporated in Ecuador, plus its legal representative’s documents (art. 239.1(c); Acuerdo art. 9.3 and Disposición Transitoria Primera).
• Disqualifications (art. 238): the applicant, its socios, directors or administrators may not hold a final conviction, or have been convicted by final judgment in the 4 years before applying, for a listed set of offences (asociación ilícita, contrabando, peculado, cohecho, concusión, enriquecimiento ilícito, extorsión, estafa, lavado de activos, delitos contra la seguridad pública); may not owe the State money; and may not be a sporting organisation, official, player or coach, or anyone with financial, shareholding or commercial ties to an operator. Extended to relatives to the 4th degree of consanguinity or 2nd of affinity.
• Full document set (art. 239): a formal request to the ente rector’s Máxima Autoridad; incorporation or branch-domiciliation documents; a RUC showing the activity; a sworn statement of lawful funds; domicile or residence proof; IESS and tax good-standing certificates including the REBEFICS beneficial-ownership filing; a current Certificado de Cumplimiento de Obligaciones and updated corporate structure; a declaration of no art. 238 disqualification; and a truthfulness declaration.
• The financial test looks backward, not forward: 3 fiscal years of IRUPD, prize-withholding and VAT filings (only the income-tax filings are limited to those made since incorporation for a company under 3 years, and not required under 1 year), the latest audited financial statements, and a patrimonio (net equity, not share capital) of at least USD 500,000 (Decreto 422 art. 239.2; Acuerdo arts. 8, 10.3).
• Technical requirements: ownership of, or an exclusive licence to, the platform’s domain (ending .com or .ec) and the distinctive sign used on it, plus a technical certification of the platform (art. 239.3). To obtain the licence, certification by a laboratory under recognised international technical standards is enough, valid for the first year of operation; from the second year, once the ente rector has issued its technical requirements, the operator has up to 90 days to file a certificate from a laboratory authorised in Ecuador (Transitoria Novena). The ente rector adopts the GLI-33 standard for event wagering systems by reference (Acuerdo art. 3.1); for the first licence an existing certificate from an internationally accredited laboratory is recognised, with only a complementary evaluation of the Ecuador-specific requirements (Acuerdo Transitoria Segunda; art. 69).
• Operational documents (Acuerdo art. 12; Decreto 422 art. 239.4): a responsible-gambling manual; an identity and age-verification manual; an AML, counter-terrorist-financing and related-crime manual; an information-security policy; a procedure for technological and security incidents; a procedure for handling user complaints, with channels, mechanisms and deadlines; and the organisational structure with responsibilities.

The annual licence fee is the only regulatory charge. The guarantee is 1% of net equity, and several standard cost lines are not addressed at all.

• No separate application or licence-issuance fee is printed distinct from the art. 241 annual value of 655 SBU a year (‘o, aquel que se determine en normativa legal vigente’): the only regulatory charge found; taxes are separate (below).
• Not addressed at all: whether the guarantee is refundable, a separate responsible-gambling contribution, or mandatory charitable/social contributions.
• Certification and audit costs are implied but not quantified: the applicant bears its own platform lab certification and an external audit of its latest financial statements (arts. 239.2(b), 239.3(c)), but neither is stated as a figure.

Two flat 15% rates apply, on two different things: the operator’s own margin-like base, and each individual prize paid to a player.

• The IRUPD is the income tax on sports-forecast income. An operator with other activities under other income-tax regimes keeps this income apart, deducts from its other income only the costs attributable to it, and cannot use this activity’s costs to work out other profits; its other income pays the ordinary 25% company rate (LRTI Reglamento, Título V-A; LRTI art. 37).
• VAT: sports forecasts offered through online platforms are digital services taxed at the general VAT rate, 15% as of 5 October 2026 (SRI Circular NAC-DGECCGC26-00000004, 31 March 2026); a platform managed by an Ecuadorian tax resident invoices and files itself.
• Filing: the IRUPD is declared and paid every month, including months with no operations (LRTI Reglamento, Título V-A), on the SRI withholding form, by the 10th to the 28th of the following month according to the ninth digit of the RUC (Resolución NAC-DGERCGC24-00000029). Resident operators also file an annual global income-tax return that consolidates the monthly figures, and must keep this income apart from any other activity’s.
• The withholding applies per predicted event, to each individual prize, not to net annual winnings or to each withdrawal.

Player funds sit in a dedicated Ecuador bank account, payment channels are a closed list, and operators report to the UAFE on a fixed schedule.

• Funds: an exclusive gaming account at an Ecuador national-financial-system institution supervised by the Superintendencia de Bancos, used only for the gaming activity and for no other purpose (art. 244).
• Payment channels are a closed list: art. 245 lets operators enable only: bank accounts and debit cards, and credit cards subject to issuer approval, at supervised institutions; reloadable prepaid cards backed by a supervised bank; and cash at the operator’s own authorised physical points. Cryptocurrency is not among them.
• Per-channel caps apply (for example, credit-card operations above USD 200 need extra authentication, and channels carry their own per-transaction, per-day and per-month ceilings), and a three-tier alert system, low, medium, high, escalates unusual activity up to a preventive block plus a suspicious-transaction report to the UAFE (arts. 245-247).
• AML: operators are UAFE-obligated subjects (Resolución UAFE-DG-2026-0005) and must obtain a UAFE código de registro within 30 days of the grant, failing which the licence is suspended (Acuerdo art. 14.5), name and register a compliance officer, run a risk-based AML/cft programme, apply customer due diligence, and keep records for 10 years. Suspicious-transaction reports are due within 5 days of suspicion (extendable by 3); monthly threshold reports (transactions at or above USD 10,000 aggregated per beneficiary) are due within the first 15 days of each month, and a nil report within 10 days after the month ends (AML Ley arts. 41, 48, 56-59).
• Responsible gambling: a permanently visible session-time counter, a responsible-play warning message, a user-facing tool to self-limit pronóstico values or session length, an operator-run self-exclusion procedure, and user-behaviour monitoring. Filed as a programme with the ente rector (art. 253). The Acuerdo adds a responsible-gambling programme with tools for limits on deposits, credit purchases, losses, playing time and frequency (art. 60.4) and a cooling-off option (art. 60.5); deposit limits the operator asks the user to set at registration, daily, weekly or monthly (art. 39); and the Registro Nacional de Personas Autoexcluidas de Pronósticos Deportivos, which every operator must query yes/no before enabling an account and throughout the relationship (art. 62). Whether the register is operating is not stated as of 21 October 2026.
• Complaints: a 24/7 channel logging the date and time of receipt and of the operator’s response, open to users or any interested third party, auditable by the ente rector on request. No fixed response-time deadline is stated (art. 250). A third party’s denuncia to the ente rector can also lead to revocation (art. 256).
• Data: the Acuerdo requires the traceability records to be kept at least seven years (art. 57); Decreto 422 requires the activity data to be kept 10 years (art. 254), and the AML Ley 10 years from the end of the relationship or last transaction (art. 48); 10 years satisfies all three. No local or mirror server is required: servers, cloud services and data centres may be outside Ecuador provided the authority keeps access to the information, the records stay available, operations stay traceable and Ecuadorian data-protection rules are met (Acuerdo art. 12).

Decreto 422 and the Acuerdo permit advertising by licensed operators, subject to conditions. The older media ban in the Communications Law regulation was removed in October 2024.

• Decreto 422 treats advertising as permitted subject to conditions, not banned: no minors in the design or as participants, no false profit expectations or misleading bonuses, a responsible-play message and an adults-only warning, clearly stated promotional terms, the operator’s own identification and authorisation shown, and solidary liability for influencers who advertise an operator without a licence (art. 252).
• Only operators holding a valid licence may advertise, promote or sponsor toward the Ecuadorian market; advertising by unlicensed operators is prohibited even when it comes from abroad (Acuerdo art. 63). Every advertisement identifies the operator and carries the licence number, and the official seal when the ente rector so determines (arts. 63, 65). Advertising may run in any time slot, on television, radio, outdoor, online and social media, if it includes the licence number, with responsible-gambling messages and the over-18 warning (art. 65). The Dirección de Gestión de Pronósticos Deportivos monitors television, radio, print, outdoor, websites, digital platforms, social media, streaming, sponsorships and affiliate marketing, and may ask for infringing advertising to be suspended or withdrawn (art. 64).
• Sports sponsorship is allowed only to licensed operators (art. 63), and sports organisations that receive operators’ money must keep separate accounts of it (art. 52). Logos on uniforms or in stadiums and advertising during live events are not addressed as such. Bonuses must be published in the terms and conditions with clear, objective and verifiable conditions, may not be aimed at minors, self-excluded or at-risk users or conditioned on increased losses, and their annual value converted into prizes may not exceed 1.5% of the operator’s average forecasts of the last three months (art. 47). The sport law does bar sports officials from financial interests or commercial ties with operators, and bars organisations, officials, players and coaches from betting on their own sport (Ley Orgánica del Deporte art. 219).

The ente rector can suspend, revoke or block a platform, and pre-decree operators faced a one-off filing deadline that ended on 19 October 2026, counting weekdays only.

• Suspension, up to 180 days, for non-payment of State obligations or the annual fee, deviating from the licence’s purpose, curable prohibited conduct, or AML breaches (art. 255).
• Revocation for a longer list of grounds: final criminal convictions for listed offences, a court declaration of insolvency of the licence holder or of shareholders holding more than 50% of the capital where it affects the operator, unjustified non-payment of prizes, loss of the granting conditions, licence transfer or lease, fraud in obtaining the licence, uncurable or repeat breaches, or unfair competition and deceptive advertising (art. 256). Due process is required for both (arts. 255-256).
• The ente rector can order blocking of the domain, app, payment methods or any other technological mechanism enabling an unauthorised platform, coordinating with the telecoms regulator, the SRI and the Banco Central (art. 257).
• Neither Decreto 422 nor the Acuerdo sets a monetary fine schedule; specific sanctions rules are due within 180 days of the Acuerdo (Transitoria Duodécima). Fines come from adjacent regimes: AML Ley fines scaled to salarios básicos unificados (leve 1-10 SBU, grave 11-20 SBU, muy grave 21-40 SBU), and an LRTI fine of up to 30 SBU on a non-resident operator’s resident apoderado for tax non-compliance.
• Transitional window: operators already running a platform before 15 June 2026 had 90 business days, counted from the day after that date (to 19 October 2026 counting weekdays only), to file for authorisation, evidencing 3 fiscal years of IRUPD, VAT and prize-withholding compliance. Missing it bars licensing outright, including through a new company, renaming, an asset transfer or fronting (Transitoria Décima). Suspected fraud, money laundering, corruption or related crimes must be referred to the Fiscalía General del Estado (art. 233(j)).

A realistic route from decision to a live licence under Decreto 422 and the ente rector’s Acuerdo of 17 September 2026.

1. 01

   Confirm your Ecuador presence

   Structuring

   Decide whether to domicile a foreign branch through the Superintendencia de Compañías, Valores y Seguros or operate through an Ecuador-resident entity. Either route must show a RUC with pronósticos deportivos as a registered activity, plus Ecuador domicile or residence (arts. 237, 239.1(c), (d), (f)).

2. 02

   Screen for disqualification

   Compliance

   Check the company, its socios, directors and administrators against the art. 238 grounds, listed final convictions (held, or entered in the 4 years before applying), outstanding State debts, and sporting-body ties extended to relatives, before investing further, since any one of them blocks a grant.

3. 03

   Assemble the three-year financial record

   Compliance

   Gather 3 fiscal years of IRUPD, prize-withholding and VAT filings (a younger company files the income-tax returns it has), the latest audited financial statements, and show a patrimonio (net equity) of at least USD 500,000 (Decreto 422 art. 239.2; Acuerdo arts. 8, 10.3).

4. 04

   Certify the platform and secure the domain

   Technical

   Commission a technical certification of the platform from a laboratory working to recognised international technical standards, and secure ownership or an exclusive licence of the domain (.com or .ec) and the distinctive sign it will run under (art. 239.3; Transitoria Novena). Budget for re-certification by a laboratory authorised in Ecuador within 90 days of the second year or of the ente rector’s technical requirements, whichever comes later.

5. 05

   Write the operational manuals

   Compliance

   Produce the documents Acuerdo art. 12 lists: the responsible-gambling manual, the identity and age-verification manual, the AML/CFT manual, the information-security policy, the incident procedure, the complaints procedure and the organisational structure (Decreto 422 art. 239.4).

6. 06

   File with the ente rector del deporte

   Regulatory

   Submit the full art. 239 document set, the formal request, incorporation or domiciliation papers, RUC, sworn funds statement, REBEFICS beneficial-ownership filing, IESS and tax good-standing certificates, corporate structure, and the disqualification and truthfulness declarations, addressed to the ente rector’s Máxima Autoridad and filed with the Viceministerio del Deporte, by the physical or electronic means it enables (Acuerdo arts. 9, 14.1). Missing items are cured within 15 business days, extendable once by up to 10; the integral evaluation takes 90 days, then a reasoned resolution (art. 14). A refusal can be appealed within 10 business days (Código Orgánico Administrativo arts. 217, 219, 224).

7. 07

   Open the gaming account and wire the payment stack

   Technical

   Set up the Superintendencia de Bancos-supervised, gaming-exclusive account (art. 244), and build to the closed list of art. 245 payment channels and their per-transaction, per-day and per-month caps. No cryptocurrency channel is permitted.

8. 08

   Register with the UAFE and stand up AML

   Compliance

   Obtain the UAFE código de registro within 30 days of the grant, failing which the licence is suspended (Acuerdo art. 14.5), name and register a compliance officer, and build the risk-based AML programme, customer due diligence and the three-tier alert system (Decreto 422 arts. 245-247; AML Ley arts. 41, 56).

9. 09

   Pay the annual fee and lodge the guarantee

   Regulatory

   After the grant, pay the 655-SBU value into the account the Dirección Nacional Financiera names, within up to 20 days; the licence is issued once payment is verified, and later years are paid within the first 20 days of each licence year (Acuerdo arts. 14, 17; Decreto 422 art. 241). Lodge the guarantee of 1% of net equity (Acuerdo art. 22): Decreto 422 art. 242 gives 30 business days from the grant notice and the Acuerdo 90 days, so plan on 30.

10. 10

    Launch, report and renew before year five

    Ongoing

    Wire in the responsible-gambling measures, the 24/7 complaints channel and the 10-year data retention, keep certification current when adding games, file the UAFE reports on schedule, and file for renewal at least 90 days before the 5-year term ends (Acuerdo art. 16; Decreto 422 arts. 239-240, 250, 253-254).

Tier-ordered: official government first, then practitioner, then trade media. Every primary figure was read from the in-force text on 29 Oct 2026.