Legal casino gambling age in Barbados
Barbados permits several forms of gambling but has never legalised casinos on land. Its national lottery, horse-race betting at the Garrison Savannah, bingo and a large sector of slot-machine arcades all operate lawfully, while house-banked games such as roulette and blackjack are not authorised. The legal framework is old and fragmented. It rests on the Gaming Act of 1891 (Cap. 135), a consolidating Betting and Gaming Act (Cap. 134A) and the Betting and Gaming Duties Act (Cap. 60), which is administered by the Barbados Revenue Authority. Barbados has no licensing regime for online gambling. In 2023 the government announced that legislation to regulate online gaming would follow, but no such law had been located by October 2026. Whether to allow casinos as a tourism product has been debated repeatedly since at least 2015 without a change in the law.
Key points
- The Gaming Act (Cap. 135), dating from 26 February 1891, still prohibits gambling in public places and offices for lotteries and sales by chance, with exceptions for pool betting and certain Turf Club lotteries.
- The Betting and Gaming Act (Cap. 134A) creates a Betting and Gaming Committee, bans games played against a bank and regulates clubs, betting offices, pool betting and gaming machines. The consolidated text states that it comes into force on a date fixed by proclamation, and its commencement could not be confirmed.
- The Barbados Lottery is run under a private management agreement with International Game Technology (IGT) on behalf of four sporting licence holders, including the Barbados Turf Club.
- There is no licence for online casinos or online sports betting. A March 2023 government promise of online gaming legislation had not, as far as could be found, produced a statute by October 2026.
- Duties on betting and gaming fall under the Betting and Gaming Duties Act (Cap. 60). Betting and gaming services became subject to VAT at 17.5% from 1 September 2015, and the 2019 Budget announced a 20% withholding tax on lottery and betting winnings.
Last reviewed: 7 October 2026.
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Historical development
The oldest statute still in the consolidated laws is the Gaming Act, passed on 26 February 1891 as “An Act to consolidate and amend the Acts of this Island relating to gaming”, and amended in 1960 and 1967 (Cap. 135). It reflects a Victorian approach to gambling: it penalises gambling and cock-fighting in streets, roads, wharves and boats, prohibits offices for lotteries and for the sale of property by chance, and declares gaming debts and securities void.
A broader modernisation was attempted through the Betting and Gaming Act, published in the 1985 Laws of Barbados Revised Edition as Chapter 134A. It was designed to “revise and consolidate the law relating to betting and gaming” and to repeal older gambling statutes listed in its Second Schedule (Cap. 134A).
In practice, legal gambling developed along three lines. Horse racing at the Garrison Savannah, organised by the Barbados Turf Club, has long been one of the island’s most popular sports, and the Sandy Lane Gold Cup, run on the first Saturday in March, is among its leading sporting events (Visit Barbados). A national lottery is operated for the benefit of sporting bodies. And a sector of arcades and betting shops grew up: a 2015 letter to the Nation (No gambling here a myth) described arcades and betting shops in Baxters Road, Oistins, Holetown and St Lawrence Gap as having operated for more than three decades. Casinos with table games, however, have never been authorised on land.
The one exception to the absence of casinos concerns cruise ships. The Cruise Ships (Opening of Facilities) Act 2012, in force from 1 October 2012, allowed gambling and duty-free shopping on cruise ships docked in the Port of Bridgetown between 6 p.m. and 6 a.m., provided the ship stayed in port for at least 12 hours. In February 2015 the House of Assembly debated an amendment reducing the time to process an onboard casino permit from two months to one. Opposition members had feared the measure would open the door to casinos on land; the government replied that its only purpose was to raise visitor spending (Nation, 10 February 2015).
Legal framework
Barbados has a single national legal system. Four statutes are central:
- Gaming Act, Cap. 135 (1891). Section 2 penalises gambling in public places, and section 7 prohibits setting up offices or places for lotteries and for disposing of property by chance, with a penalty of $480. Under section 18 the Act does not apply to pool betting, to lotteries or sweepstakes organised by the Barbados Turf Club or an approved overseas turf club in connection with a race meeting, or to small Transport Board lotteries (Gaming Act, Cap. 135).
- Betting and Gaming Act, Cap. 134A. The main regulatory statute on paper, described below.
- Betting and Gaming Duties Act, Cap. 60 (1977). The fiscal statute that “consolidates and amends laws concerning the imposition of duties and fees on betting and gaming activities”, covering lotteries, casinos and betting. It is supplemented by the Betting and Gaming Duties Regulations 1979 and was amended by the Betting and Gaming Duties (Amendment) Act 2010-16 (Barbados Revenue Authority).
- Gambling Act, Cap. 134. An older statute that still appears in lists of Barbadian legislation. Its text could not be retrieved for this guide.
The Betting and Gaming Act (Cap. 134A)
The Betting and Gaming Act is organised in parts dealing with gaming in general, licensed club gaming, on-course betting, off-course betting, lotteries and gaming machines. Its main features are:
- Ban on banking games. Section 7 provides that no gaming covered by the general part may take place where “the game involves playing or staking against a bank”, where the chances are not equally favourable to all players, or where the chances lie between a player and some other person. This rules out the house-banked games, such as roulette and blackjack, on which casinos depend. Gaming in a private dwelling is exempt.
- Club gaming. Clubs may be licensed for gaming by members present on the premises and their guests, with a 48-hour wait after a person applies for membership, no credit for gaming and no gaming on Sundays between 06.00 and 19.30. Bingo is expressly provided for.
- Racecourse betting. The Minister approves racecourses and grants on-track betting licences, and a totalisator may operate only on race days.
- Off-course betting. Pool betting businesses and betting premises must be registered, with annual certificates running from 1 January to 31 December. Section 33 makes it an offence to send money out of Barbados in connection with a pool bet.
- Lotteries. Lotteries are prohibited except for small lotteries incidental to entertainment, lotteries by registered sporting and cultural bodies, and private lotteries approved by the Committee.
- Gaming machines. Gaming machines, defined as devices “constructed or adapted for playing a game of chance”, may be imported only under licence and used only on approved premises, with a prescribed charge per play and payout percentage. Machines must carry a notice that use by minors is prohibited. Contraventions are punishable by a fine of $5,000 or 12 months’ imprisonment (section 61).
- Minors. Persons under 18 may not take part in gaming covered by the Act; under section 10 the penalty is a fine of $200 or one month’s imprisonment.
The legal status of Cap. 134A needs to be stated with care. Section 85 provides that the Act “comes into operation on a date to be fixed by proclamation”, and the consolidated text published on the Barbados Law Courts website does not record a commencement date. Its Second Schedule repeals earlier gambling statutes, yet the Gaming Act of 1891 is still published as a current chapter of the laws. This guide could not confirm whether, or to what extent, Cap. 134A has been proclaimed.
Regulator and licensing model
Barbados has no single gambling regulator comparable to a gaming commission. Responsibilities are divided:
- The Betting and Gaming Committee, established by section 3 of Cap. 134A, is the licensing body under that Act. Its ex officio members are the Comptroller of Customs, the Commissioner of Inland Revenue, the Commissioner of Police and the Solicitor General, joined by up to five members appointed by the Minister (Cap. 134A).
- The Barbados Revenue Authority administers the Betting and Gaming Duties Act (BRA).
The model is restricted licensing without casinos: the lottery, racing and pool betting, club gaming, bingo and gaming machines are permitted; banking games and casinos are not. Supervision of the large arcade sector has been weak. The Caribbean Financial Action Task Force (CFATF), in its 2018 mutual evaluation of Barbados, found that gaming institutions, which are registered with the Customs and Excise Department, “are not casinos and are not currently regulated and supervised for AML/CFT purposes”. It identified gaming arcades as presenting elevated money-laundering risk and called for “an immediate and comprehensive re-evaluation of the ML risk represented by the gaming arcades” (CFATF, 2018).
The regulatory gaps also had fiscal effects. In August 2010, the then Opposition Leader Mia Mottley, citing the Auditor General’s 2009 report, said that 349 video lottery terminals had been licensed for importation by the Comptroller of Customs and released to importers in 2008 after their apertures were removed. She noted that “video lottery terminals were required to pay an annual licence fee of $15 000 on each machine” and alleged that about $12 million in revenue had gone uncollected over 27 months because the amending legislation was delayed. A Betting and Gaming Duties (Amendment) Bill was passed to clarify the classification of these machines (Nation, 7 August 2010).
The Barbados Lottery
The Barbados Lottery is held by four licence holders: the Barbados Olympic Association, the Barbados Cricket Association, the Barbados Turf Club and the National Sports Council. Its operations are managed by IGT under a private management agreement dating from 2005. In December 2019 the licence holders extended the agreement by ten years. It covers sales, marketing, retail terminals, vending machines and equipment for games played in social venues. The beneficiaries described IGT-generated revenues as a significant portion of their income (iGaming Business, December 2019). The statutory basis on which the lottery licence was granted could not be verified for this guide.
Horse racing and pari-mutuel betting
The Barbados Turf Club organises racing at the Garrison Savannah. Betting on its races is pool (pari-mutuel) betting, in which winnings are paid from the pool of stakes rather than at fixed odds set by a bookmaker. The Turf Club has passed through financial difficulty. The national tourism agency’s account notes that an early lottery venture ran into difficulty after “a hefty tax was imposed on the sale of lottery” tickets, and that the club recovered after the government absorbed its debt and a joint venture was agreed with a competing lottery. (Visit Barbados). Under Cap. 134A, off-course betting offices may not take bets on Turf Club races and must close at noon on Turf Club race days.
Online gambling
No Barbadian statute provides a licence for online casinos, online sports betting or online poker, and no regulator publishes a register of online operators. The 1891 Act is concerned with public places, and Cap. 134A presupposes physical premises such as clubs, racecourses, betting offices and approved machine premises. The lottery’s private management agreement includes retail and self-service channels (iGaming Business, 2019). No public source located for this guide showed it holding an online casino licence.
The government has acknowledged the gap. On 25 March 2023 Ryan Straughn, Minister in the Ministry of Finance, said that legislation to regulate online gaming would be introduced before the end of June 2023. It would form part of a new betting and gaming regulatory regime, with monitoring in cooperation with the telecommunications industry and support from a capacity-building partner. He said: “Our citizens are currently engaging in e-commerce type activities that we are not currently capable of regulating” (Barbados Today, 25 March 2023). As of October 2026, no Act regulating online gambling had been found on official sources, and the commitment appears not to have been implemented.
No website-blocking, payment-blocking or advertising rules specific to online gambling were identified. Offshore sites are reachable, but they are not supervised in Barbados and their customers have no local complaints procedure.
Position of players
No Barbadian provision was found that makes it an offence for an individual to gamble on a foreign website, and no prosecution of a player for online gambling was identified. Online play therefore sits in a grey area: it is not licensed, but it is not clearly criminalised for players. Several older rules can nonetheless affect individuals:
- gambling in public places such as streets, roads and wharves is an offence under section 2 of the Gaming Act;
- under the same Act, gaming debts and securities are void, so a gambling debt cannot be enforced in the courts;
- section 33 of Cap. 134A prohibits sending money out of Barbados in connection with pool betting, subject to the uncertainty about that Act’s commencement noted above; and
- persons under 18 may not take part in regulated gaming, and machines must warn that use by minors is prohibited.
Taxation
Gambling duties are levied under the Betting and Gaming Duties Act (Cap. 60) and its 1979 regulations, administered by the Barbados Revenue Authority. Its current rates are not given in the Authority’s published summary. Cap. 134A also provides for pool betting duty to be collected by stamps affixed to tickets or by periodic payment.
Several changes have been announced in budget statements:
- VAT (2015). The 2015 Budget provided that “all betting and gaming services and supplies which are currently exempted from VAT will be subject to pay VAT at the standard rate of 17.5%” from 1 September 2015 (2015 Budgetary Proposals, Appendix III).
- Lottery winnings (2013). The 2013 Budget proposed a 15% tax on lottery winnings. Reports in November 2013 described the Ministry of Finance as having told the lottery operator that it would not pursue the measure in its original form, while the Minister said it had not been abandoned (Nation, 19 November 2013).
- Winnings and net drop (2019). In the March 2019 Budget, Prime Minister Mia Mottley announced that “effective May 1, there will be a 20 per cent withholding tax on winnings from lotteries and betting” and “a 17.5 per cent gambling tax on the net-drop of all gaming establishments”. She said that the gaming industry had paid no taxes since 2011, relying on a claimed “Standstill Arrangement” with the government. Establishments were to replace slot machines with auditable ones by 1 January 2021, and the government would collect 3% of the sums owed for 2011-2018 over a four-year period (Barbados Today, 21 March 2019).
This guide could not confirm from official sources how the 2019 measures were finally legislated, or the rates in force in 2026. Players who win substantial sums should seek advice from the Barbados Revenue Authority.
Consumer protection and responsible gambling
Barbados has limited formal protections for gamblers. The statutory safeguards are those in Cap. 134A: a minimum age of 18 for regulated gaming, a ban on credit for club gaming, restricted Sunday hours, approved premises for gaming machines with prescribed charges and payout percentages, and notices on machines warning that minors may not use them. No national self-exclusion register was found, and no gambling-specific regulator publishes player-protection rules.
No dedicated gambling helpline was identified. The international directory Find A Helpline lists no gambling service for Barbados (Find A Helpline). People affected by gambling can approach their doctor or general addiction and counselling services in Barbados for support. General guidance on setting limits and recognising warning signs is available in our responsible gambling guide.
Recent and upcoming developments
- Casino debate (2015-2016). In 2015 the then Attorney General Adriel Brathwaite called for a study of casino gambling, according to a letter to the Nation supporting the call (Nation, 23 February 2015); a separate commentary argued for legalisation (Nation, 19 February 2015). On 2 February 2016 Tourism Minister Richard Sealy said the government’s position “remains unchanged” but called for discussion without emotion and for empirical work on other jurisdictions, pointing to Aruba (Nation, 2 February 2016).
- 2019 Budget questions. Opposition Leader Bishop Joseph Atherley read the 2019 gaming tax measures as a possible step towards casinos and asked the government to “say so very clearly” if that was the intention (Nation, 21 March 2019). No casino legislation followed.
- Cruise ship gaming and AML. Barbados’s National Risk Assessment of December 2019 rated the threat from gaming as low. It stated that “casino gambling is prohibited while cruise ships are berthed in Barbados”, with gaming taking place before vessels enter and after they leave (National Risk Assessment, 2019). This differs from the arrangement described in 2015 under the 2012 Act, and the current position of cruise-ship casinos in port should be checked.
- Online gaming legislation (2023). The promised online gaming framework, announced for June 2023, had not been located as enacted law by October 2026 (Barbados Today).
- Renewed casino discussion (2023). On 18 April 2023 Tourism Minister Ian Gooding-Edghill expressed personal support for casino gambling as a tourism product. The Anglican Bishop of Barbados, the Most Reverend Michael Maxwell, restated the church’s opposition (CBC, 18 April 2023). Two days later the Barbados Hotel and Tourism Association said it “sees merit” in the idea (CBC, 20 April 2023). No bill to legalise casinos had been found as of October 2026.
- Lottery retail. According to a summary citing a CBC report of 3 September 2025, 27 lottery vending machines were to be positioned across the island; their installation was not independently verified (Barbados Lottery overview).
Casino listings for players in Barbados
The listings below are generated automatically from our casino database. They do not show that any operator is licensed in Barbados, which has no licensing regime for online casinos and publishes no register of online operators. Casino gaming against a bank is not authorised under Barbadian law, so the listings must not be read as an indication that online casino play is regulated or protected in Barbados.
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Sources and further reading
- Laws of Barbados (Barbados Law Courts), Betting and Gaming Act, Cap. 134A (L.R.O. 1985).
- Laws of Barbados (Barbados Law Courts), Gaming Act, Cap. 135 (accessed 7 October 2026).
- Barbados Revenue Authority, Betting and Gaming Duties Act (accessed 7 October 2026).
- Caribbean Financial Action Task Force, Mutual Evaluation Report: Barbados (2018).
- Financial Services Commission, Barbados, Barbados National Risk Assessment Report (December 2019).
- Parliament of Barbados, Appendix III: Summary of 2015 Budgetary Proposals Measures (2015).
- Barbados Today, Legislation coming to govern online gaming (25 March 2023).
- Barbados Today, Stay the course (21 March 2019).
- Nation News, Atherley wants to know if casino gambling is coming (21 March 2019).
- Nation News, $12m “lapse” (7 August 2010).
- Nation News, House debate to focus on gaming (10 February 2015).
- Nation News, Barbados maintains casino gambling position (2 February 2016).
- Nation News, Tax hitch? (19 November 2013).
- Nation News, Legalise casino gambling (commentary, 19 February 2015).
- Nation News, No gambling here a myth (letter, 23 February 2015).
- Caribbean Broadcasting Corporation, What do Barbadians think about introducing casino gambling as a means of boosting tourism? (18 April 2023).
- Caribbean Broadcasting Corporation, More support for casino gambling (20 April 2023).
- iGaming Business, IGT pens long-term extension with Barbados Lottery licensees (December 2019).
- Barbados Tourism Marketing Inc. (Visit Barbados), Barbados horse racing: the sport of kings in paradise (accessed 7 October 2026).
- Wikipedia, Barbados Lottery (accessed 7 October 2026).
- Find A Helpline, Gambling support in Barbados (accessed 7 October 2026).
