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

The MHCP is the Autoridad de Aplicación. Its Oficina de Casinos y Salas de Juegos de Azar issues the Título-Licencia and every Permiso, and the same authority authorises the internet and sports-betting add-on.

• The application is a written letter addressed to the Minister of Hacienda; the instruments describe no online portal.
• The state Lotería Nacional keeps lotteries, raffles and promotional draws. Its electronic lottery is sold as LOTO Nicaragua under an operation contract with Canadian Bank Note Company, Limited, approved by the National Assembly (Decreto A.N. 8765).
• The Unidad de Análisis Financiero (UAF) supervises casinos for anti-money-laundering purposes; its director also sits on the Consejo that regulates casinos.
• No separate gambling-advertising regulator is named. Consumer-law advertising falls to DIPRODEC at MIFIC.
• Ley 884 moved the casino powers from INTUR to the MHCP. The 2012 INTUR Normativa is the only gaming normativa text published, and no later amendment to Ley 766 or its Reglamento appears in the Assembly database.

Laws that apply

• Ley 766, Ley Especial para el Control y Regulación de Casinos y Salas de Juegos de Azar (consolidated text, La Gaceta 156, 21 August 2020), reformed by Ley 884 (La Gaceta 215, 12 November 2014)
• Decreto Ejecutivo 06-2015, Reglamento de la Ley 766 (consolidated text, La Gaceta 156, 21 August 2020)
• Normativa General para la Operación de Casinos y Salas de Juegos (INTUR, La Gaceta 79, 1 May 2012)
• Ley 822, Ley de Concertacion Tributaria, Title VI (special casino tax), as reformed by Ley 891 and Ley 987
• Ley 977 (anti-money-laundering, consolidated text, La Gaceta 153, 20 August 2024) and UAF normativas UAF-N-020-2019, -021-2019, -022-2019 and -024-2024
• Lotteries and raffles: Decreto 2-95 creating the Lotería Nacional, as reformed by Decreto Presidencial 10-2024

There is no standalone online licence and no B2B licence class. Two permits come first, and the online authorisation sits on top of them.

• The request for the add-on names the casino where the service is offered, the betting system and its provider, and the name and web address of the pages used as reference lines. The certified contracts are filed with it.
• The instruments set no cap on the number of licences, but online betting is limited to Category A establishments and a 400 m distance rule applies to premises.
• Category A is a casino with 71 or more machines and/or three or more tables.
• The instruments set no rule on brands or domains, and no local domain extension is required.

Internet games and sports betting may be offered to nationals, residents and tourists, but only through the authorised add-on. The state lottery is the one locally run online product.

The Law accepts an individual or a legal person and does not require a Nicaraguan-incorporated company. A foreign legal person registers in the Registro Público Mercantil and documents the origin of its funds.

• An EU or EEA company is treated like any other foreign company; the texts draw no line by country or bloc.
• A physical establishment in Nicaragua is needed for the Permiso, and a local bank certificate must show current-account deposits at the minimum average balance.
• A legal representative with a power of attorney must be accredited and named in the licence, with a Nicaraguan identity card or, for a foreigner, a residence card.
• Shareholders, partners, directors and the representative give a police certificate, or a home-country equivalent for foreigners, and a sworn declaration of no impediment. Persons convicted by final judgment of offences in the seven years before filing are barred.
• A change of shareholders, partners or directors is notified to the MHCP within one month; a new shareholder must meet the legal requirements as an original one. Failing to notify is fined US$25,000.
• No percentage threshold for ultimate beneficial owners is stated, and foreign staff may not exceed 10% of a casino’s personnel.

The licence fees are small; the weight is the capital that must be held or committed. No minimum share capital is stated. The Law asks instead for a bank balance, a bank guarantee and, for the larger categories, an investment.

• The bank certificate must be dated at most 15 days before filing. The guarantee is issued by an institution regulated by the SIBOIF, in favour of the MHCP, before the Título, and is payable on sight.
• An operator with several establishments posts the guarantee of its highest category. Whether and when the guarantee is released is not stated.
• No separate issuance fee, supervisory levy or responsible-gambling contribution is stated. The operators bear the cost of authorising and supervising casinos.
• Holders with a Category A casino file an audited financial statement from a SIBOIF-registered firm within four months of each fiscal year end; not filing is fined US$25,000.

No application window or deadline is stated for new applicants, and no overall timeline is stated for the Título. No laboratory or certification body is named in the instruments.

• No formal pre-licensing approval exists, but the Oficina answers consultations on the rules and issues a Temporary permit before the definitive one.
• The texts list no separate grounds for refusal: an application fails if the conditions of Ley 766 Arts. 18, 25 and 32 are not met or the site breaches the 400 m rule.
• After the Consejo, the Reglamento says only that the aggrieved party may use “la vía que corresponda”.

The instruments set hard rules for slot machines, table games and the online provider, and name no gaming-equipment standard such as GLI or ISO.

• No server location, cloud, geolocation or real-time reporting rule is stated. The only data-location rule is the general data-protection law (Ley 787 Art. 14), which bars transfers of personal data to countries without adequate protection.
• Slot machines must return at least 85% of theoretical income and table games at least 75%; no maximum is set. Autoplay, turbo play and bonus-buy features are not mentioned.
• Operators keep meter data, a daily register, surveillance records, customer due-diligence records and an incident book, and send a monthly cash-flow report by the tenth of the month.
• Game programs and machines must be in the Catálogo de Juegos and the Oficina’s register; makers, sellers and maintainers of equipment register with the Dirección de Casinos.

Casinos pay the special monthly tax of Title VI of Ley 822, charged per table and per machine in operation. Internet games and sports betting are taxed “as the common tax legislation determines” (Ley 766 Arts. 48-49); Ley 822 names no rate for them.

• The special tax is declared and paid monthly, fifteen days after month end, on form 124. The payment is the minimum definitive payment on account of the annual IR and is not deductible.
• The base is the number of tables and machines in operation, not GGR, turnover or stakes, so bonuses and jackpots are not deducted from it.
• No advertising or sponsorship tax appears. In Managua, casinos pay 7% of gross income under the 1991 municipal Plan de Arbitrios.

Persons under 18 may not enter, stay or play in casinos and gaming rooms. The law states no separate age for internet play.

• A bet may be placed only in cash, by credit or debit card, or by cheque; accepting any other means, crypto-assets included, is fined US$20,000.
• No national self-exclusion register, deposit or loss limit, reality check, cooling-off period, helpline duty or responsible-gambling warning is stated.
• Identity is verified under the UAF normativa for transactions such as exchanges of US$1,000 or more and funds accepted into a casino-held account.
• Complaints go to the operator under the consumer-protection law (10 working days to resolve), or as a denuncia to the Dirección de Casinos. DIPRODEC takes consumer complaints. No ADR provider is required.

No instrument bans or specifically permits gambling advertising. The consumer-protection law (Ley 842) applies to the operator as a provider.

• False, misleading or abusive advertising is banned; direct contact for promotions is barred before 8 a.m. and after 5 p.m.
• Any additional prize a casino offers needs prior approval from the Dirección de Casinos (INTUR Normativa 18.5), and a promotion must state its terms and duration.
• No rule covers television, radio, online, social media, influencers or affiliates as such, and no responsible-gambling warning is required in advertising.

Casinos and gaming rooms are obliged subjects under Ley 977 (as amended by Ley 1282, in force on 19 June 2026), supervised by the UAF.

• A casino names an in-house compliance officer resident in Nicaragua, registered with the UAF, employed on an indefinite contract; the function cannot be outsourced (UAF-N-024-2024).
• A suspicious operation report goes to the UAF as soon as the analysis concludes there is suspicion, and no more than 30 days may pass between the alert and the report.
• Operation and due-diligence records are kept at least five years; the UAF can fine for breaches from 500 to 15,000 unidades de multa.

No supplier role has its own licence. A supplier is reached through the operator, or through a registration with the Dirección de Casinos.

• A platform provider holds no licence; the Category A operator names the system and provider in its request and files the certified contract.
• A machine model and its game program must be authorised and entered in the Registry. No local entity, representative or office is required of a technology provider.
• No instrument recognises a supplier licence from another jurisdiction. Equipment may be imported only for a licence holder.

Administrative fines run from US$500 to US$25,000 by class of infraction.

• After a warning and a fine, the MHCP may suspend a Permiso or the operator licence for one to six months and close an establishment permanently, with seizure and destruction of equipment.
• The MHCP published on 17 July 2026 that 369 seized slot machines were destroyed on 16 July 2026.
• The Código Penal has no offence of unlicensed gambling; money laundering carries five to seven years.
• Directors and employees can be personally liable under the Reglamento, and the UAF can fine directors and compliance officers.

The route in the order the instruments set it. It starts from a land-based Category A casino, because the online authorisation cannot be requested without one.

1. 01

   Decide whether the online route applies

   Category A casino only

   The internet and sports-betting authorisation is open only to a Category A casino with a Título-Licencia and a Permiso. A purely online operator has no route.

2. 02

   Prepare the Título-Licencia file

   US$2,000 application form

   Assemble the corporate documents, the sworn declarations, police certificates, the investment plan and, for a foreign company, the Registro Mercantil entry and proof of the origin of funds. File a letter to the Minister of Hacienda.

3. 03

   Show the bank balance and lodge the guarantee

   US$100,000 balance, US$50,000 guarantee for Category A

   A local bank certificate shows the average balance, dated at most 15 days before filing. The guarantee is shown before the Título is issued.

4. 04

   Obtain the Permiso and commit the investment

   US$200,000 and 30 direct jobs

   Each establishment needs a Permiso, renewed yearly on payment of the Derecho de Funcionamiento. A Temporary permit is cancelled if the investment and jobs are not shown within 30 days of opening.

5. 05

   Request the internet authorisation

   10 working days

   File the request with the betting system, its provider, the web pages and the certified contracts. The MHCP decides within 10 working days. Prizes are then paid only by non-negotiable cheque.

6. 06

   Operate: monthly tax, reports and renewals

   Special tax monthly

   Pay the special tax, send the monthly reports to the DGI and the UAF, and renew the Título six months and each Permiso one month before expiry.

Tier-ordered: official government first, then practitioner, then trade media. Every primary figure was read from the in-force text on 27 Oct 2026.