A bill in Peru would raise the selective consumption tax (ISC) on online bets from 1% to 5% of each wager. It was filed by the parliamentary group of the Civic Works party. The measure covers the online segment only; land-based gambling is untouched.
The new ISC would sit alongside the existing 12% tax on GGR for remote betting and sports betting operators rather than replace it. The 5% rate would apply whether an operator is registered in Peru or abroad. If passed, the law takes effect the day after publication in El Peruano, with the higher rate starting on the first day of the following calendar month.
Peru's regulated online market opened in February 2024, with licences going to operators including Stake, Rush Street Interactive and Betsson. The 1% ISC took effect on 1 July 2025, after being dropped before launch and revived in 2024. At 1% the tax raises about S/324 million ($94.1 million) a year. At 5% collections could reach S/1.62 billion, an estimate the bill itself calls a 'static illustrative scenario'.
Justification and regional context
Ministry of Health data records 14,409 cases of gambling addiction treatment at the country's medical facilities in 2025. The explanatory memorandum frames the tax as one more fiscal instrument in a set of prevention, regulation, supervision and support measures, not as a solution to the problem. The bill does not propose a ban on online betting. It cites Argentina, where operators pay an indirect tax on online bets of 2.5% to 15%, and Colombia, with 16% VAT on GGR, and argues that 5% is therefore 'not in itself extraordinary in the regional context'.
The extra cost lands on operators, on bettors, or on both, depending on how companies respond: absorb it, pass it on partly or in full through changed betting terms. In Colombia some operators offset the tax with bonuses.
