Venezuela's gambling sector is structured around two statutorily separate regulators: the Comisión Nacional de Casinos (CNC), with exclusive competence over casinos, bingo halls and slot machines under the 1997 Ley para el Control de los Casinos, Salas de Bingo y Máquinas Traganíqueles, and the Comisión Nacional de Lotería (Conalot), which licenses lottery activity through IOBPAS. The dominant development as at 17 October 2026 is a Conalot communiqué reasserting that bingo, casino and slot-machine regulation belongs exclusively to CNC, formally barring IOBPAS lottery licensees from entering bingo on pain of sanctions. This tightens the practical boundary between the two regulatory lanes without altering the underlying 1997 statutory basis. Separately, a general Banco Central de Venezuela tariff circular has raised domestic mobile-payment settlement costs, a cross-cutting pressure on the sector's payment economics rather than a gambling-specific rule.
Jurisdictions › Venezuela › Overview
Venezuela · Question 01 of 11
Overview: What kind of market is this?
Unfavourable · Confirmed · AI-generated · Back to full Venezuela report →
Key section parameters
| Jurisdiction | Venezuela (VE) |
|---|---|
| Regulator | Recorded in register |
| Favourability | Unfavourable |
| Confidence | Confirmed |
| Review status | AI-generated |
| Last collected | 18 Oct 2026 |
Summary answer
Venezuela's gambling sector is structured around two statutorily separate regulators: the Comisión Nacional de Casinos (CNC), with exclusive competence over casinos, bingo halls and slot machines under the 1997 Ley para el Control de los Casinos, Salas de Bingo y Máquinas Traganíqueles, and the Comi…
Key headwinds & conditions
- FATF grey list June 2024
- OFAC sanctions with no gambling General License
- FTO-designated organisations embedded in the state
- regulatory infrastructure functionally collapsed