Costa Rica determined to stay in the online casino business

6 Sep 2006

Costa Rica has become an unregulated online casino stronghold, and hosts over 200 online casino operations. It is illegal to operate such casinos in the United States and recent news has addressed the issue, particularly following the jailing of Bet on Sports executive David Carruthers, who was part of an online sports gambling site that accepted bets from US residents. Over 10,000 people are employed by these online casinos in Costa Rica and it seems that the government has little to no problem with the possibility that the number of employees will continue to grow.

The President of the Costa Rican Electronic Gambling Association, Eduardo Agami, said last week that there will be a lot of pressure on officials to permit the online casinos to stay in business. He also believes that any problem between the casinos and the American government should be resolved between the two, without Costa Rican interference. Agami wishes to concentrate right now on calming the online casinos' employees, clients and the government, and remind them that Costa Rica is not in the same frame of mind as the US government.

Costa Rican officials are pushing towards regulation, citing Britain's use of operating licenses as an excellent example. It seems that banning online gambling is not a consensus outside the US and governments show much interest in legalizing the casinos and welcoming them into the 'legit' world, abundant in advertisement on the one hand and taxes on the other.