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Jurisdictions › Vanuatu

Vanuatu Online Gambling Regulation, Licensing & Tax Regime

National jurisdiction

Vanuatu offers a fast, local-company-based interactive gaming licensing route, but AML, player-protection, and technical-standards detail remain unverified pending further research.

3 open · 1 restricted · 16 not yet assessed → 20 classes
Collected 1 Nov 2026 · Published 4 Nov 2026 · Changed 1 Nov 2026 PDF Sign in for PDF Compare
Regulatory DimensionVanuatu Standing Position
JurisdictionVanuatu (VU)
Primary Gambling RegulatorSee Licensing & Regulation section
Product Access Summary3 open · 1 restricted · 16 not yet assessed
Permitted (Open) VerticalsPoker, Sports betting, Esports betting
Restricted / Monopoly VerticalsCasino
Verification & CurrencyAI research, not expert reviewed · Published 4 Nov 2026 (collected 1 Nov 2026)

Can we offer our product?

Every product class, in fixed taxonomy order. The band is what you can do; where the recorded legal status says something the band does not, it is shown beside the product.

Player products

  • Casino
    Restricted
  • Poker
    Open
  • Bingo
    Not yet assessed
  • Lottery
    Not yet assessed
  • Sports betting
    Open
  • Other event betting
    Not yet assessed
  • Horse and greyhound racing betting
    Not yet assessed
  • Esports betting
    Open
  • Exchange betting
    Not yet assessed
  • Pool betting
    Not yet assessed
  • Virtual event betting
    Not yet assessed
  • Fantasy sports
    Not yet assessed
  • Skill games
    Not yet assessed
  • Prediction markets
    Not yet assessed
  • Sweepstakes
    Not yet assessed
  • Free play
    Not yet assessed

Supply roles

  • Software / B2B
    Not yet assessed
  • Affiliate marketing
    Not yet assessed
  • Payments for gambling
    Not yet assessed

Settlement rail

  • Crypto gambling
    Not yet assessed

No class-level certainty grade is recorded for this jurisdiction yet; confidence is carried per section below.

Board briefing

Vanuatu runs a dual-track, DCIR-administered gambling regime: an offshore-style interactive gaming licence with a fast statutory 2-month decision, alongside separately-statuted land-based club and casino licensing — but AML, player-protection, and technical-standards detail could not be verified this run.

What has changed

  • No confirmed statutory change was identified this run. Trade press reports a 2024 relaunch of the interactive licence product, but no official DCIR instrument was located to corroborate it.

What to do now

  • Treat the interactive gaming pathway (Cap 261) as the primary entry route; verify counterpart identity strictly against .gov.vu domains given documented regulator-identity confusion (VFSC attribution; non-official 'vga.vu' site); commission targeted follow-up research on AML/CFT, player-protection, and technical-certification requirements before committing capital.

What to watch

  • Any official DCIR public notice or amending instrument confirming (or correcting) the reported 2024 interactive-licence relaunch; publication of technical standards or an approved test-lab regime under Cap 261 s.19.

11 answers, each dated and graded

The weather grades favourability for an operator, not legality: legality is the product table above. The left rule is our confidence: solid confirmed, dashed probable, dotted uncertain.

01 · What kind of market is this?

Vanuatu Gambling — Overview

Mixed

Parliament's First Extraordinary Session 2026 passed a wider nineteen-bill financial-sector reform package that includes amendments touching the Vanuatu Interactive Gaming Act and the Tax Administration Act. Reporting ties the package in part to Vanuatu's effort to secure removal from the European U…

Full analysis · 147 words

Parliament's First Extraordinary Session 2026 passed a wider nineteen-bill financial-sector reform package that includes amendments touching the Vanuatu Interactive Gaming Act and the Tax Administration Act. Reporting ties the package in part to Vanuatu's effort to secure removal from the European Union's Annex I list of non-cooperative tax jurisdictions, placing the gambling-sector changes within a broader tax-cooperation agenda rather than a gambling-policy-specific one. The interactive gaming licence term is being restructured from a flat grant of up to fifteen years to an initial two-year term with a conditional further term of up to ten years, alongside a new requirement for genuine local business operations. Gambling tax, fee and levy collection for the Casino Control Act, Lotteries Act, Interactive Gaming Act and Gaming Control Act is being brought under the Tax Administration Act's general administration. Both instruments have passed Parliament but await Gazette publication and a commencement date.

  • Regulator-identity confusion in the wild (third-party VFSC attribution; non-.gov.vu 'vga.vu' site)
  • No official instrument located for a reported 2024 interactive-licence relaunch
  • Dead Act-text hyperlinks on the official Cap 172 licensing page
Probable · AI-generated · Read full analysis & tables →
Mixed

The Vanuatu Interactive Gaming (Amendment) Act, passed by Parliament during the First Extraordinary Session 2026, restructures the licence term for interactive gaming licensees under the Vanuatu Interactive Gaming Act (Cap 261). The existing flat licence term of up to fifteen years is replaced with …

Full analysis · 156 words

The Vanuatu Interactive Gaming (Amendment) Act, passed by Parliament during the First Extraordinary Session 2026, restructures the licence term for interactive gaming licensees under the Vanuatu Interactive Gaming Act (Cap 261). The existing flat licence term of up to fifteen years is replaced with an initial two-year term, followed by a further licence of up to ten years where the licensee's compliance during the initial term is satisfactory. The amendment also requires licensees to maintain genuine business operations in Vanuatu, adding a substance condition to the licence that did not previously exist in this form. The Act has passed Parliament but has not yet been gazetted, and no commencement date has been located; the gazetted act number and precise statutory provision references accordingly remain outstanding. Until commencement, current licensees continue under the terms of their existing licences, and the two-year renewal checkpoint will apply only to grants and renewals made once the amendment takes legal effect.

Probable · AI-generated · Read full analysis & tables →
10 · How hard does the regulator enforce?

Vanuatu Gambling — Enforcement

Mixed

The principal enforcement development is the extension of the Department of Customs and Inland Revenue's audit, assessment and penalty powers, exercised under the Tax Administration Act No. 37 of 2018, into gambling-sector revenue obligations. The Tax Administration (Amendment) Act adds the Casino C…

Full analysis · 189 words

The principal enforcement development is the extension of the Department of Customs and Inland Revenue's audit, assessment and penalty powers, exercised under the Tax Administration Act No. 37 of 2018, into gambling-sector revenue obligations. The Tax Administration (Amendment) Act adds the Casino Control Act (Cap 223), the Lotteries Act (Cap 205), the Vanuatu Interactive Gaming Act (Cap 261) and the Gaming Control Act (Cap 172) to Schedule 2 of the Tax Administration Act, bringing gambling-sector tax, fee, levy and penalty collection under that Act's general enforcement framework rather than each gambling statute's own administration. This Act passed Parliament during the First Extraordinary Session 2026 but has not yet been gazetted, and no commencement date has been located, so the expanded enforcement reach is prospective rather than active. No enforcement events, fines or licence revocations connected to this change have been reported. A separate Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorism Financing Act amendment passed in the same session, reportedly introducing annual re-registration and a fit-and-proper test for reporting entities' key persons, but whether this extends to gambling or casino licensees as designated reporting entities has not been confirmed from a primary source.

Uncertain · AI-generated · Read full analysis & tables →
Evidential record & source register 0 enforcement · 4 red flags · 11 sources · Expand full record

What gets operators fined

4 red flags (1 high, 2 medium, 1 low) and 0 controls that address them.

  • high
    A non-.gov.vu site ('vga.vu') presents itself as the 'Vanuatu Gaming Authority' administering applications for the DCIR.
    Counterparty due diligence processes that do not verify the .gov.vu domain discipline risk engaging an unofficial intermediary for licence applications.
    Sources
  • medium
    Third-party sites attribute Cap 261 licensing to the Vanuatu Financial Services Commission (VFSC) rather than DCIR.
    Operators or counterparties relying on VFSC attribution may approach the wrong authority or misjudge the regulator's supervisory posture.
    Sources
  • medium
    Trade press reports a 2024 relaunch of the interactive gaming licence; no official DCIR instrument evidencing this was located.
    Market-entry decisions based on the reported relaunch cannot currently be grounded in a verifiable primary source.
    Sources
  • low
    Act-text hyperlinks on the official DCIR Gaming Licence (Cap 172) page currently resolve to '#' (dead links).
    Impedes direct verification of the Cap 172 statutory text from the regulator's own site.
    Sources

Worked scenarios

5 entry scenarios, each with the move we would make.

An offshore sportsbook operator wants to use Vanuatu as a licensing hub for its online betting brand.

The operator must incorporate or partner with a local company under the Companies Act No.25 of 2012 to apply under Cap 261 s.4; DCIR must decide within 2 months under s.5.

Do this: Verify counterparties strictly via .gov.vu channels given documented regulator-identity confusion; commission AML/CFT and technical-standards due diligence before launch given this run's coverage gaps.

Sources

A B2B platform/software supplier (no direct B2C operation) wants to supply a Vanuatu-licensed operator.

No B2B-specific licence class was located in the Cap 261 text reviewed; the Act contemplates a single licence class held by the local-company operator.

Do this: Treat as absent_no_pathway; supply arrangements likely sit outside DCIR's direct licensing perimeter but should be confirmed with DCIR directly.

Sources

A hotel group wants to add gaming machines to its Vanuatu property.

This falls under the Gaming (Control) Act [Cap 172] Hotel (profit-making) Licence class, with a 30% public-club-type duty on gross profit if operated as a public facility.

Do this: Apply directly to DCIR; note the Act-text link on DCIR's own Cap 172 page is currently dead, so obtain the Act text via the Trade Portal record instead.

Sources

An investor group wants to build and operate a full casino resort in Port Vila.

Requires DCIR application plus Council of Ministers approval under the Casino Control Act [Cap 223]; VT1,000,000 licence fee payable, with 15% monthly gross-profit tax and 20% p.a. late-payment penalty.

Do this: Budget for the political-approval step as a separate, less predictable timeline element compared to the purely administrative Cap 261 process.

Sources

A prospective licensee encounters the 'vga.vu' site claiming to process Cap 261 applications on DCIR's behalf.

vga.vu is not a .gov.vu domain and was only seen in search results, not on any official DCIR page; DCIR's own site includes a standing warning to 'beware of fake websites pretending to be official'.

Do this: Do not transact through non-.gov.vu intermediaries; apply directly to DCIR using the official application form.

Sources

What we looked for and could not find

Confirmed absence is a finding of its own. These are the questions we searched and could not answer from a citable source, with the searches we ran. Never behind the paywall.

Aml cft regime. no FATF/APG mutual evaluation report, FIU reporting threshold, or designated-reporting-entity status located for VU gambling sector.
  • searched: Vanuatu AML CFT gambling FIU reporting threshold
  • searched: Vanuatu APG mutual evaluation report gambling
  • searched: Vanuatu Financial Intelligence Unit interactive gaming
  • checked: vanuatucustoms.gov.vu
Player protection. no self-exclusion scheme, deposit-limit regime, reality-check requirement, or age-verification standard located in Cap 261, Cap 172, or Cap 223 text/pages reviewed.
  • searched: Vanuatu Interactive Gaming Act self-exclusion responsible gambling
  • searched: Vanuatu gambling age verification requirement
  • searched: Vanuatu DCIR player protection gaming
  • checked: vanuatucustoms.gov.vu
Technical compliance. no RNG certification body, approved test labs, or technical standards instrument located beyond the s.19 'approval of games' reference.
  • searched: Vanuatu interactive gaming technical standards RNG testing
  • searched: Vanuatu DCIR approved game testing laboratory
  • searched: Vanuatu Cap 261 section 19 game approval regulations
  • checked: vanuatucustoms.gov.vu
Data protection. no primary data-protection framework or supervisory authority identified for Vanuatu generally or for gambling specifically.
  • searched: Vanuatu data protection law gambling operator
  • searched: Vanuatu privacy act 2024 2025
  • searched: Vanuatu KYC data retention gambling
  • checked: vanuatucustoms.gov.vu
Consumer protection. no general consumer-law framework, ADR body, or complaint-escalation path specific to gambling identified.
  • searched: Vanuatu consumer protection act gambling
  • searched: Vanuatu alternative dispute resolution gambling complaints
  • searched: Vanuatu Office of the Consumer Affairs Council gaming
  • checked: vanuatucustoms.gov.vu
Payments and money flow. no permitted funding methods, withdrawal timeframe obligations, or capital-control regime located for VU interactive gaming operators.
  • searched: Vanuatu interactive gaming payment processing withdrawal rules
  • searched: Vanuatu Reserve Bank capital controls gambling
  • searched: Vanuatu gaming operator banking requirements
  • checked: vanuatucustoms.gov.vu
Competitive landscape. no named-source licensed-operator count or market-concentration figure located.
  • searched: Vanuatu licensed interactive gaming operators list
  • searched: Vanuatu DCIR gaming licensees register
  • searched: number of Vanuatu online casino licence holders
  • checked: vanuatucustoms.gov.vu
Market opportunity. no GGR estimate or credible market-size study located for VU interactive gaming.
  • searched: Vanuatu online gambling GGR market size estimate
  • searched: Vanuatu iGaming industry report
  • searched: Vanuatu interactive gaming market study
  • checked: vanuatucustoms.gov.vu
Reform horizon. no active consultation or draft legislation located, including for the claimed 2024 relaunch of the interactive licence.
  • searched: Vanuatu Interactive Gaming Act amendment 2024 2025 2026
  • searched: Vanuatu gambling law reform consultation
  • searched: Vanuatu gaming authority relaunch official notice
  • checked: vanuatucustoms.gov.vu
Enforcement. no enforcement_events located (fines, revocations, prosecutions) against VU gambling licensees or unlicensed operators in the trailing 12 months or earlier.
  • searched: Vanuatu gambling licence revocation enforcement action
  • searched: Vanuatu DCIR gaming licence suspended fine
  • searched: Vanuatu interactive gaming operator prosecution
  • checked: vanuatucustoms.gov.vu

Source register

Every source on a four-step tier scale. A claim is never shown at a stronger tier than the source it cites.