Panama

The JCJ, operating under the MEF, licenses and supervises all games of chance in Panama, and the country was an early LatAm mover on internet gaming — authorizing domestic online gambling and betting via Resolution No. 11 of 6 March 2020. Online operators obtain a license (~$40,000 initial / $20,000 annual renewal) and pay 10% of GGR monthly.

Pari-mutuel thoroughbred horse racing is conducted at the Hipódromo Presidente Remón (est. 1956, operated by Codere), overseen by the JCJ through a dedicated Racetrack Inspection department and the National Races Commission. In 2026 Panama enacted a significant overhaul (Bill No. 403, advanced March–May 2026) mandating biometric age verification, banning influencer/celebrity promotion, restricting advertising, requiring operators to allocate 10% of profits to addiction treatment, and shifting the JCJ to real-time transaction monitoring.

The minimum gambling age is 18. Prediction markets remain outside the JCJ’s licensing categories — leaving platforms like Polymarket (which relocated to Panama) in a grey market.

Gambling is legal and regulated inside Panama. Locals and tourists are allowed to visit both land-based casinos and online betting sites. The country allows all the most common forms of gambling including traditional casino games, sports betting, poker and parimutuel racing betting. The entire industry is regulated by the government’s gaming commission, Junta de Control de Juegos.

Panama also acts as a major licensing jurisdiction for online casinos. Many companies who offer games in North, Central and South America are hosted in Panama and are licensed to offer games and bets over the internet.

Locals are free to join gaming sites based out of any part of the world. This includes actual Panamanian betting sites as well as those based elsewhere. Overall, Panamanians have a great degree of freedom in choosing where and how we participate in gambling.

Panama Betting Sites

We suffer no lack of options when it comes to choosing a place to play. We can play at sites headquartered right here in Panama as well as sites based anywhere else in the world.

Spanish support is not the problem: promotions, game rules and customer support are widely provided in Spanish. The one thing I’ve found lacking across the board is support of the Panamanian balboa, and no major betting site accepts deposits in balboas.

Fortunately, there are still options. If you’re living in Panama now and want to make a deposit, you can use any number of e-wallets to convert your money into USD when completing a deposit. Some of these include Neteller, Skrill and Paysafecard. If none of these are appealing, you can have your bank convert your balboas to USD and then make a deposit via bank wire.

One other thing I’d like to note before moving on is that a Panama licence is not by itself a quality signal. The JCJ provides some oversight and requires every internet betting site it authorizes to carry responsible-gambling tools and to block anyone barred from gambling in Panama, but a local licence on its own is not a reason to choose one site over another.

Among the sites headquartered out of Panama there are a number that I would hesitate to recommend. The ones worth a second look have been in business a long time and hold licences from more demanding jurisdictions.

Panama Gambling Laws

Panama law is very friendly towards all types of gambling. The government opened casino operation to private companies in the late 1990s — the Junta de Control de Juegos approved its rules for privately run full casinos and Type A slot-machine halls by Resolution No. 92 of 12 December 1997 — and there are now dozens of privately-owned casinos spread across the country. These are mostly small operations with a collection of slot machines with a few major resorts dotting the landscape.

The land-based industry is subject to a strict set of regulations that operators must adhere to. Panamanian officials understand the importance of the country as a tourist destination and are therefore fairly strict in their oversight. This is especially the case for larger resorts that cater to tourists.

Online gambling is licensed and supervised by the JCJ under the internet gaming regulations it approved in 2002, and every internet betting site it authorizes must carry responsible-gambling tools and must block anyone barred from gambling in Panama. Simply having a license is no guarantee of quality – gambler beware.

This is not to say all Panamanian gambling websites are untrustworthy; there are plenty of legitimate sites based out of Panama. The licensing standards alone are not enough to judge any one gaming site. Each site’s history of paying winners and hosting games is a better judge of quality or lack thereof.

Panama Online Gambling Licenses

Panama started issuing licenses through its gaming commission after the Junta de Control de Juegos approved its internet gaming regulations, Resolution No. 65 of 25 October 2002. Companies seeking a license must pay an up-front licensing fee of 40,000 USD in addition to an annual fee of USD 20,000.

The regulatory agency regularly audits gambling companies for fairness and financial stability, although little information is available on what the auditing process actually entails. After all, this is the licensing authority that gave the go-ahead to Ultimate Bet Poker. If you’re not familiar, Ultimate Bet was at the center of a major cheating scandal several years ago and resulted in lost player funds. The site eventually closed and nobody was ever prosecuted.

Master license holders also have the option to grant sub-licenses to subsidiaries. A sub-license pays no application fee but is subject to the $20,000 per year renewal fee. Sublicenses are often utilized by umbrella companies with multiple, semi-independent brands working under them.

Locals are free to play wherever they want, and JCJ-authorized internet betting sites now serve players inside Panama directly.