Paraguay Plans New Gambling Regulator Amid Oversight Concerns

Key Points

• Just a handful of officials, 12 of them in total, are keeping an eye on gambling across the whole country in 263 municipalities, but the Senate is mulling over a new bill to replace them.
• Oddly enough, the powers to block websites and a five-year prison term for those who break the rules have already been on the books since before this latest debate even started.
• Despite the new bill, gambling revenue still only managed to climb by a bit over 23% in 2025, short of the massive increases the officials were expecting.

We’ve got a whole lot of gambling going on in Paraguay, with 263 municipalities to keep an eye on. And right now, just a dozen officials are trying to oversee the lot of it. Senator Luis Pettengill pointed this out on October 26th. The government did its thing and submitted a bill on October 12th to replace the National Gambling Commission, which is called Conajzar, with a new outfit called Dinajzar. On top of that, the bill wants to get rid of two of the existing laws that govern the whole shebang. Not bad, considering Conajzar has only been under the supervision of the tax authority DNIT for less than two years so far… and yet here we are. Why on earth is Paraguay looking to shake things up again so soon?

Senators Get a Glimpse of How Little Oversight There Really Is

On October 26th, a few different Senate committees all got together to take a closer look at this proposed new law. Pettengill pointed out that we really don’t have anywhere near the level of control over gambling that we should have, especially when it comes to minors getting involved.

“We’ve really got big problems when it comes to controlling underage gambling in just about every city across the country,” he said. Pettengill also mentioned that budget constraints are holding the agency back from even trying to expand its reach or take offenders to court.

Conajzar’s president, Carlos Liseras, told the Senate that in the past year alone, the monthly fee collections for the charity that gets all the revenue, DIBEN, went from around 12 billion guaraníes to 21 billion. Not bad at all… but it’s still a tiny team that’s got all that responsibility on its shoulders. A representative from the private sector also shared some disturbing statistics with the committees. The problem of illegal gambling is growing faster than anyone could have predicted.

The Ministry of Economy and Finance phrased it pretty clearly, they want a system that’s going to stop the industry from ballooning out of control. Senator Ignacio Iramain also threw his hat into the ring and said that any new rules need to treat problem gambling as a real public health issue. And then there’s Senator Líder Amarilla, who pointed out that this new law would be moving Conajzar out of the tax authority’s supervision all over again.

Javier Balbuena, a former head of Conajzar, thinks the bill is pretty much a done deal, he reckons that pretty much all of the lawmakers are on the same page that the current system just needs to change. “We’ve seen it before, piecemeal solutions and temporary fixes. This is a chance to really get it right.”

A Reform That Never Quite Got Off the Ground

Corruption allegations surrounding a Conajzar sports betting tender in 2022 sparked calls for reform in Paraguay. That led to Law 7438 being passed. The Chamber of Deputies gave the bill the green light back in December 2024, and President Santiago Peña signed it in January 2025. The law effectively moved Conajzar from under the Ministry of Economy and Finance umbrella into DNIT.

Gambling revenue for the state had broken all previous records in 2024, hitting a record PYG 175.8 billion, which translates to around $21.9 million. By that January, Liseras was claiming that DNIT had the ‘sufficient operational reach’ to handle all national territory. You’d think that would be enough.

But by February, Liseras was telling local radio that the 2024 total would easily triple. Then in May, he was telling iGaming Business that revenue under DNIT was going to double, and might possibly even far exceed what those estimates said. That’s a pretty big claim.

The reason for bringing about the previous reform in the first place was to protect minors. Liseras said it was the main driver behind changing the law. But Balbuena says that the restructuring of the gambling commission entirely failed to meet its aims and actually weakened the administration.

He also claims that licences are still stuck in limbo and that the government isn’t paying enough attention to the thousands of illegal operators out there. Liseras countered by saying that the merger between Conajzar and DNIT hadn’t even been finished yet.

What A New Body Would Do, and What It Wouldn’t

Under a new body called Dinajzar, which would have its own identity and budget, but report through the finance ministry to the Executive, things would change a bit. Yogonet Latinoamérica reported that the national director would be appointed and sacked by executive decree.

Liseras said that Dinajzar would have a presence in every single one of Paraguay’s 263 municipalities and 17 departments.

As it is, some of these powers are already out there. CONAJZAR can already block websites under current law. And that five-year prison sentence that Balbuena is worried about? That’s actually been around since the law of 2012.

Balbuena reckons there are more than 20 online casino operators who have been given permission to operate in Paraguay. But Aposta.la is the only one that has a licence for sports betting. Local media says the bill would put 26 online gambling licences up for tender.

Licences which were issued on a temporary basis before Law 7438 will be valid until January 2028, at the absolute latest. Focus Gaming News has reported that Article 16 of the new bill would let licence terms run for up to ten years, which is a pretty big deal. Some in the industry are saying that a five-year term would be enough for operators to get their investment back. The same outlet also reports that a land-based casino concession would also come with a right to run an online casino.

ABC Colour says that the proposed system would charge a minimum of PYG 12 million a month, plus 7 per cent of all sales, less prizes. But Balbuena says we still don’t know what the final tax burden is going to be. And winnings of more than PYG 500,000 are already subject to an 8 per cent withholding tax.

Local media is saying that Dinajzar would keep 5 per cent of revenue from national games, casinos and the racing industry. Different reports are saying different figures, with some saying 20 per cent or even 5 per cent.

Operators Watch as Committees Work

The bill is still at the committee level, and no date for voting in the whole Senate has been announced. Pettengill said that the committees want to have a better version of the text within 15 days.

According to Balbuena, two items could be debated in connection with the bill: terms of the licence and sharing of the revenue between regional and municipal governments.

Expert Opinion: New Name or Additional Staff?

While we consider the biggest advantage of the bill to be independence of the regulator, the mechanism for the appointment of its head should be looked into more carefully. According to Yogonet, Dinajzar would have an independent budget, but the Director of the organisation would be appointed by decree of the President. This would mean that Dinajzar is not independent enough. Those who support the bill may say that having its own budget is more important than who appoints the head. They are right.

Revenue forecasts also need a revision. Officials expected that revenue would double or even triple. The collection total of PYG 215.9 billion in 2025 was 23 per cent higher compared to 2024. Tripling was expected for 2025, but the revenue increased by a quarter instead.

Further growth slowed down to 6 per cent in the first five months of 2026. Nevertheless, the increase in 2025 proves that stricter regulation is able to increase revenue from fees. This is the main argument for those who support the bill.

It means that there are twelve officials to oversee 263 municipalities, i.e. one official for twenty-two municipalities. We think that the key factor in enforcement of gambling regulations is additional staffing of the body, not the name change. It is justified to ask why the government wants to switch from the DNIT arrangement, while Liseras says that the merger is not complete yet. They may say that the delay in issuing licences and ineffective supervision prove that this structure does not work. Balbuena’s comments confirm this opinion.

Previously, Balbuena said that the success of the reform will depend on its implementation and the ability of the agencies to avoid overlapping their competences. On 6 October, six days after the introduction of the bill, DNIT approved a four-department structure for its gambling directorate.