Peru lawmakers propose raising online betting tax to 5%

A bill lodged by the parliamentary group of Peru's Civic Works Party would raise the country's selective consumption tax (ISC) on online betting from 1% to 5%, according to iGaming Business.

The increase would apply only to online wagers, leaving land-based gambling unaffected. It would also sit alongside, rather than replace, the existing 12% tax on the gross gaming revenue of remote betting and gaming operators.

The same 5% rate would apply to every operator taking bets in Peru, regardless of whether it is licensed domestically or incorporated abroad.

If passed, the law would take effect the day after publication in El Peruano, Peru's official gazette, with the new 5% rate applying from the first day of the following calendar month.

Peru opened its regulated online gambling market in February 2024, drawing licence applications from operators including Stake, Rush Street Interactive and Betsson. The ISC had originally been dropped from the framework before launch, but was reinstated in 2024 and has been charged at 1% since 1 July 2025. One lawyer previously told iGaming Business the tax risked being "catastrophic" for the market.

The bill sets out two main justifications for the fivefold rise. The first is public health, pointing to Ministry of Health figures that it says recorded 14,409 cases of treatment for gambling addiction at health facilities nationwide in 2025.

The bill states that increasing the specific tax burden on the activity "can contribute to a comprehensive policy for preventing problem gambling", while stressing that the tax is not intended as a standalone solution but as "an additional fiscal instrument into a broader set of measures covering prevention, regulation, oversight and care."

The second justification is fiscal. The bill describes the ISC as serving a "revenue-generating purpose", while insisting the aim is not to ban online betting but to "moderately raise the tax burden associated with the activity within a market that remains subject to authorisation and regulation."

According to figures cited in the bill, the 1% ISC currently generates around S/324 million ($94.1 million) a year. Raising the rate to 5% could lift that to roughly S/1.62 billion, though the bill describes this as a "static, illustrative scenario" rather than a firm projection.

To support the case that 5% would not be out of step regionally, the bill points to Argentina, where an indirect tax on online betting ranges between 2.5% and 15%, and to Colombia, which applies a 16% VAT on operators' gross gaming revenue. On that basis, the bill argues the proposed rate "does not, in itself, constitute an extraordinary rate within the regional context."

How the added cost would be distributed between operators and bettors is left open. The bill acknowledges operators could absorb the higher tax, pass it on to customers through changed betting terms, or split the cost. It cites Colombia as an example where some operators have used bonus crediting to offset the effect of VAT on players.