A bill in Peru's Chamber of Deputies raises the tax on each online bet to 5%

A group of Peruvian deputies has registered in the Chamber of Deputies an initiative to raise from 1% to 5% the Selective Consumption Tax (ISC) that taxes remote games and sports betting. It is Legislative Proposition 00519-2026-2031-CD, promoted by Deputy Luis Aurelio Masco Cáceres, of the Obras Civic Party. It is also signed by Dina Irene Hancco Hancco, Heber López Letona and the group's spokesman, Víctor Eduardo Piñán Mamani.

It is one of the first gambling initiatives of the new legislature. Peru has had a two-chamber Congress since July 2026.

What's changing

The bill modifies paragraph A of the New Appendix IV of the Single Harmonized Text of the IGV and ISC Law, which is where the rate applicable to these activities is set. The keys are:

• The tax goes from 1% to 5% of the value of each bet, without changing the base. In a bet of 100 soles 5 soles would be paid instead of one.
• It applies to both domestic operators and foreign platforms. In the case of foreign ones, the taxpayer is the player and the operator acts as a withholding agent.
• To determine whether a bet is made in Peru, the IP address, SIM card, means of payment or the player's address are taken into account.
• It does not modify the specific tax of 12% of Law 31557, which regulates remote gambling and betting, nor does it affect face-to-face gambling: casinos, machine rooms and betting premises.
• If approved, the rule will enter into force the day after its publication in the official gazette El Peruano, and the new rate will be applied from the first day of the following month.

Prevention of problem gambling as an argument

The authors justify the increase in the prevention of gambling addiction and the protection of adolescents and young people. They cite the 14,409 addiction cases registered by the Ministry of Health in 2025, an alert from the National Institute of Mental Health and the investigations opened in June by Indecopi, the consumer protection agency, on advertising in the sector.

The text itself recognizes that the ISC "on its own" does not reduce gambling addiction and that it is not a prohibition. As a reference, its authors calculate that the collection would go from about 324 million soles per year to about 1,620 million. These are illustrative figures: the official estimate corresponds to the Ministry of Economy and Finance.

The current regime

Online gambling in Peru has been regulated since the approval of Law 31557 in 2022. That law taxes operators with 12% of net revenue, which is shared between the Treasury, the Ministry of Foreign Trade and Tourism (Mincetur) and the Peruvian Sports Institute. In 2024, Legislative Decree 1644 extended the ISC of 1% to remote gaming and betting, including foreign platforms with players resident in Peru.

New closures of clandestine premises

Meanwhile, Mincetur maintains its offensive against illegal gambling, both online, with the blocking of 36 platforms in July, and in person:

• Its General Directorate of Casino Games and Slot Machines, with the support of the National Police, has closed six clandestine premises in Chiclayo (Lambayeque) and José Crespo y Castillo (Huánuco).
• It has seized 44 machines and 41 computer equipment that were used for online sports betting without authorization.
• Some of the machines were intended for minors, something that is prohibited by law.
• So far in 2026, the ministry has 33 closures: 19 illegal sports betting establishments and 14 clandestine rooms.