Legal casino gambling age in Guyana
Guyana has a narrow, partly outdated gambling framework that is now under review. Land-based casinos have been lawful since 2007, but only in large hotel or resort complexes, and only under licences issued by the Gaming Authority. Betting shops are licensed by the Guyana Revenue Authority under the Tax Act, and a national lottery is run under an agreement with the government. Current legislation contains no licensing regime for online gambling, which has nonetheless spread through mobile betting applications. In July 2026 the government tabled the Gaming Authority Bill 2026, which would bring remote gaming platforms, betting shops, gaming lounges and casinos under a single regulator. At the date of review the Bill had not been enacted.
Key points
- Gambling is governed mainly by the Gambling Prevention Act (Cap. 9:02), as amended by Act No. 5 of 2007, which legalised casinos in new hotels or resorts with at least 150 rooms, with no more than three casino premises licences per region.
- The Gaming Authority licenses casinos and supervises casinos, lotteries and betting shops for anti-money laundering purposes. Betting shop licences are issued by the Guyana Revenue Authority.
- Existing law does not license or specifically regulate online gambling. No online casino holds a Guyanese licence.
- The Gaming Authority Bill 2026 (Bill No. 12 of 2026) was read for the first time in the National Assembly in late July 2026 and would cover remote gaming platforms. It was not law at the date of review.
- No national self-exclusion scheme or dedicated gambling helpline could be identified. The Bill proposes a Responsible Gaming Fund.
Last reviewed: 8 October 2026.
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Historical development
Guyana’s basic gambling statute descends from the colonial Gambling Prevention Ordinance. An amending act of 1969, Act No. 14 of 1969, referred to the Gambling Prevention Ordinance as Cap. 21 and replaced references to the “Governor in Council” and the “Governor and Legislative Council” with references to the Minister. In a 2016 interview the then chairman of the Gaming Authority, Roysdale Forde, described the 1902 legislation as insufficient for a modern gaming sector (Stabroek News, 1 July 2016). The Ordinance is now the Gambling Prevention Act, Cap. 9:02. Its model is prohibitive: it deals with common gaming houses, betting, gaming and lotteries, which are restricted except where the law specifically permits them.
Casinos were the most significant exception added. Bill No. 30 of 2006, published on 28 December 2006 with an explanatory memorandum signed by the Minister of Home Affairs, sought to amend the Act “to allow for regulated casino gambling”. It was passed by the National Assembly on 22 January 2007 and assented to on 31 January 2007 as Act No. 5 of 2007. The policy aim, as later recalled by Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo, was to support the hotel industry: casino licences were tied to hotels of at least 150 rooms (CMC / Jamaica Observer, 17 October 2025).
Guyana’s first casino, the Princess Casino at the Princess Hotel in Providence, opened on 20 February 2010 (Kaieteur News, 21 February 2010). At the time, local residents were barred from gambling there, and admission required registration and identification. At the official opening, President Jagdeo said he found the restriction on Guyanese patrons “bothersome” and hinted that it might be changed, which drew objections from opposition politicians and religious bodies (Stabroek News, 23 March 2010). A second casino, the Carnival Casino at the SleepIn Hotel in Georgetown, opened on 1 December 2020, one day after being licensed by the Gaming Authority. Its applications had twice been rejected under the previous administration before a court ordered that they be processed (Stabroek News, 2 December 2020).
Plans to replace the old law have been discussed for a decade. In 2016 the Gaming Authority said that new legislation was being drafted to bring all forms of gambling, including online gambling and sports betting, under its remit (Stabroek News, 2016). A draft Gaming Policy developed and circulated by the Authority, reported in January 2023, proposed more than a dozen licence types, including class A and class B casino operators, sports betting and slot parlours for route gaming machines (Stabroek News, 22 January 2023). These proposals culminated in the Bill tabled in 2026, described below.
Legal framework
The Gambling Prevention Act and the 2007 casino amendment
Act No. 5 of 2007 inserted new sections 27 to 33 into the Gambling Prevention Act. The main provisions are:
- Two licences. A casino premises licence authorises a place to be used as a casino. A casino operator’s licence authorises a person to run one. Both are issued by the Gaming Authority, on such conditions as it considers fit.
- Regional cap. No more than three casino premises licences may be issued for any one of Guyana’s ten administrative regions.
- Hotel requirement. A casino premises licence may be issued only for a new hotel or resort complex with at least 150 rooms for accommodation and a minimum rating prescribed by regulations.
- Admission. Under section 30, no one may be admitted to a licensed casino other than a worker at the casino, “a paying guest accommodated in a room of the hotel or resort complex” for which the licence was issued, or “any other person or class of persons authorized by regulations”.
- Penalties. Breaches of the casino provisions are punishable on summary conviction by a fine of G$1 million to G$20 million and imprisonment of six months to two years.
- Regulations. Section 32 empowers the Minister to make casino regulations, including regulations establishing the Gaming Authority and setting fees.
The Act also excludes licensed casino gambling from the definitions of betting, gaming, common gaming house and lottery in the principal Act, and makes a consequential amendment to the Summary Jurisdiction (Offences) Act (Cap. 8:02) so that licensed casino gambling is not treated as unlawful gambling. It amended the Tax Act (Cap. 80:01) to refer to licensed casinos and licensed casino gambling (Act No. 5 of 2007).
Betting, pools and lotteries
Betting shops and pool betting are dealt with in the Tax Act rather than in a gaming statute. The consolidated text published by the Ministry of Legal Affairs requires premises used for betting transactions to hold an annual licence for each set of premises, together with a deposit with the Accountant General. Separate provisions license pool betting premises and impose a tax on lotteries and sweepstakes connected with race meetings of the Demerara Turf Club. The national lottery operates under an agreement with the government made under lottery legislation (see below).
Anti-money laundering law
The Anti-Money Laundering and Countering the Financing of Terrorism Act 2009 (Act No. 13 of 2009) treats casinos, lotteries and betting shops as designated non-financial businesses. According to the Financial Intelligence Unit, the Gaming Authority was appointed AML/CFT supervisory authority for casinos on 20 December 2012, for lotteries on 7 December 2016 and for betting shops on 17 June 2018. Guyana is a member of the Caribbean Financial Action Task Force (CFATF), whose mutual evaluation report (on-site visit September 2023) found that casinos are “adequately supervised” (Stabroek News, 25 July 2024).
Regulator and licensing model
Guyana has a restricted licensing model: a few named forms of gambling are permitted under licence, and everything else falls under the general prohibitions of the Gambling Prevention Act. There is no unified regulator. Responsibilities are divided as follows:
- Gaming Authority. Section 32 of the 2007 amendment empowers the Minister to establish it by regulations; it began operating on 1 December 2008, according to Public Gaming Research Institute (June 2022). It issues casino premises and operator licences and acts as AML/CFT supervisor of the gaming sector. The 2006 Bill that became the casino amendment was presented under the name of the Minister of Home Affairs. The Authority has a chairman and board; Manniram Prashad was appointed chairman in September 2020 (Stabroek News, 2 December 2020).
- Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA). Issues betting shop licences. Its licence page lists a fee of G$2.5 million for a new or renewed licence, renewable annually, with requirements including a police clearance and premises approvals from the Central Housing and Planning Authority and the Guyana Fire Service. In 2019 the Gaming Authority confirmed that it “has no power to issue a Betting Shop Licence” but that, since 2018, a certificate of good standing from it forms part of the GRA’s requirements (Stabroek News, 24 May 2019).
- Ministry of Finance. Contracts the national lottery operator (see below).
Officially published counts of licensees could not be found. Press reports indicate that two casinos were operating by the early 2020s, the Princess Casino and the Carnival Casino, and that in 2021 the government signed memoranda of understanding with hotel developers that included the possibility of casino licences for hotels of more than 150 rooms with four-star service (Public Gaming, 2022). The betting shop sector is much larger: in October 2025 Vice President Jagdeo referred to “four or five hundred outlets” (CMC / Jamaica Observer), and a Suriname-based operator reported 175 locations in 2019 (Stabroek News, 24 May 2019).
The national lottery
The Guyana Lottery Company, which began operating in 1997, runs ten lottery games, including Lotto Supa 6, through more than 200 agents (Guyana Chronicle, 8 October 2024). In 2017 Kaieteur News reported that the company operates under an agreement with the government under the Lottery Act, acting as agent of the Canadian Bank Note company, and that a five-year contract gave the government at least 24 percent of proceeds. The same report recorded a dispute over video lottery terminals placed in bars, which the Gaming Authority said it had advised the company not to operate until regulations and legislation were in place (Kaieteur News, 10 October 2017). In 2022 the Ministry of Finance issued a request for proposals for a full-service lottery solution provider, with a submission deadline of 26 July 2022. We could not verify the outcome of that procurement.
Online gambling and enforcement
Guyana’s current legislation does not provide for the licensing of online casinos, online sports betting or other remote gambling. The 2007 casino provisions refer to physical premises in hotels, and Stabroek News reported in 2016 that online gambling and sports betting were “currently not regulated under the Gambling Prevention Act” (Stabroek News, 2016). Reporting for Bloomberg Tax in October 2025 summarised the position in the same way: the gambling law does not cover online gambling and regulates only hotel casinos, and then only for registered guests.
In practice, online and app-based betting has grown regardless. In October 2025 the Vice President described gambling as having moved from hotel casinos into mobile applications, “gambling on demand. It’s in every home, it’s an app”, and blamed “a very liberal licensing and taxation policy” for the problem (CMC / Jamaica Observer, 17 October 2025). Many of these services appear to be linked to the land-based betting shop sector; Bloomberg Tax reported that Surinamese and Barbadian companies run gaming shops in villages and towns across the country.
We found no evidence of the tools used elsewhere against unlicensed online gambling, such as a published blocklist of websites, directions to internet service providers, payment blocking or specific advertising rules for online gambling. Guyana does not currently have the legal machinery to license an online operator, and offshore sites operate in a legal grey area rather than under any authorisation. The proposed Gaming Authority Bill 2026 would change this by bringing “remote gaming platforms” within the regulator’s oversight, but its detailed online provisions had not been published in the sources we reviewed.
Position of players
The sources reviewed do not identify any provision that makes it an offence for an individual in Guyana to place bets or play casino games on a foreign website, and we found no reported prosecution or fine of a player for doing so. That absence should not be read as a positive authorisation. The Gambling Prevention Act still restricts gaming houses, betting and lotteries in Guyana, and a player who uses an unlicensed service has no Guyanese regulator to complain to and no local protection if winnings are withheld.
For land-based casinos, the position of Guyanese residents has been contested. Section 30 limits admission to casino workers, paying hotel guests and other persons “authorized by regulations”. When the Princess Casino opened in 2010, locals were barred. In January 2014 Stabroek News reported that local women could reportedly enter with an identification card while local men’s entry was at management’s discretion; the hotel’s manager said men could enter if accommodated at the hotel (Stabroek News, 10 January 2014). A December 2014 column in Kaieteur News noted that the statute itself leaves the matter to regulations and asked the government and the Gaming Authority to clarify whether the regulations had been changed. We could not locate the current text of the casino regulations, so whether Guyanese residents who are not hotel guests may lawfully gamble in casinos could not be confirmed. Press reports indicate a minimum age of 18 for casino entry (Kaieteur News, 2017; Public Gaming, 2022).
Taxation
Operators
Taxes on betting are set in the Tax Act (Cap. 80:01). The consolidated text published by the Ministry of Legal Affairs provides for:
- an annual licence for each set of betting premises and for pool betting premises, with a deposit of G$50,000 per set of betting premises with the Accountant General (capped at G$100,000 for operators with more than two sets);
- a pool betting tax of 20% of the gross amount of each bet received; and
- a tax of 8⅓% of gross ticket sales on lotteries and sweepstakes connected with Demerara Turf Club race meetings.
The consolidated text states a betting premises licence fee of G$2 million, while the GRA’s current licence page lists G$2.5 million. The GRA figure should be treated as the current fee. The 2007 amendment brought licensed casinos within a provision of the Tax Act, but we could not verify the rate of tax currently applied to casino revenue. The lottery operator’s payments to the state are set by contract.
Players
The same consolidated text provides for a tax of 10% on the gross value of each bet placed at a betting shop. It is paid by the bettor to the operator, which remits it weekly to the Commissioner-General. This is a tax on stakes rather than on winnings. We could not verify how winnings from gambling are treated under the Income Tax Act, and readers with questions about particular winnings should consult the Guyana Revenue Authority.
The government has signalled that taxation will increase. In October 2025 the Vice President said gambling should become high-cost and tightly regulated, and Bloomberg Tax reported plans for “steep taxes” on online gambling operations (Bloomberg Tax, 16 October 2025). The Gaming Authority Bill 2026 includes provisions on taxation of gaming, but the rates had not been published in the sources reviewed.
Consumer protection and responsible gambling
Formal player protection in Guyana is limited. The main existing safeguards are structural rather than player-focused:
- Restricted casino access through the hotel and admission requirements of the 2007 amendment, and identity checks at casino entrances;
- Licensing checks, including police clearance for betting shop applicants and, since 2018, a Gaming Authority good-standing certificate;
- AML/CFT supervision of casinos, lotteries and betting shops by the Gaming Authority.
We found no national self-exclusion register, no statutory deposit or loss limits, and no dedicated gambling helpline in Guyana. Religious organisations have pressed the government for stronger controls, citing harm to families and household finances, and the government credits their advocacy as a significant factor behind the 2026 Bill (Guyana Chronicle, 28 July 2026). The Bill would establish a Responsible Gaming Fund and responsible gaming measures. People affected by gambling can seek help through general health services, and our responsible gambling guide gives general guidance.
Recent and upcoming developments
- Government announcement (October 2025). At his weekly press conference, reported on 16 October 2025, Vice President Jagdeo announced tougher regulation and taxation of gambling, citing the spread of betting apps and neighbourhood outlets. He said citizens’ rights would not be curtailed but that gambling should become costly and tightly regulated (CMC / Jamaica Observer; Bloomberg Tax).
- Gaming Authority Bill 2026 (July 2026). Attorney General Anil Nandlall presented the Bill (Bill No. 12 of 2026), which was read for the first time in the National Assembly. It would create “a comprehensive legal framework to regulate gambling activities while promoting responsible gaming” and, in the Attorney General’s description, provide for the licensing, regulation, supervision, taxation and control of gaming, betting and wagering, and would give the Gaming Authority oversight of casinos, gaming lounges, betting shops, betting shop agents, remote gaming platforms and simulcast horse racing. It also provides for regulation of gaming equipment, AML/CFT obligations, administrative penalties and a Responsible Gaming Fund (Guyana Chronicle, 28 July 2026). The government stated that it does not intend to ban gambling.
- Select committee. The Department of Public Information reported on 27 July 2026 that the Bill was expected to be referred to a Special Select Committee at the next sitting (DPI, 27 July 2026). We could not confirm from the National Assembly’s records whether the referral had taken place by 8 October 2026.
- Industry response (August 2026). The Private Sector Commission publicly supported the Bill, its chairman calling for the sector to grow within a regulated framework while addressing money laundering, addiction and access by young people (Guyana Chronicle, 14 August 2026).
Casino listings for players in Guyana
The listings below are generated automatically from our casino database. They do not show that an operator is licensed in Guyana. Guyanese law currently provides no licence for online casinos, and no regulator publishes a register of authorised online operators. The listings must not be read as an indication that an operator is authorised in Guyana. Readers should follow the progress of the Gaming Authority Bill 2026, which would introduce licensing for remote gaming platforms.
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Sources and further reading
- Parliament of Guyana, Gambling Prevention (Amendment) Act 2007 (Act No. 5 of 2007) (2007).
- Parliament of Guyana, Gambling Prevention (Amendment) Bill 2006 (Bill No. 30 of 2006) (2006).
- Parliament of Guyana, Gambling Prevention (Amendment) Act 1969 (Act No. 14 of 1969) (1969).
- Ministry of Legal Affairs, Laws of Guyana, Volume 14, including the Tax Act (Cap. 80:01) (accessed 8 October 2026).
- Guyana Revenue Authority, Betting Shop Licence (accessed 8 October 2026).
- Financial Intelligence Unit of Guyana, AML/CFT Supervision (accessed 8 October 2026).
- Department of Public Information, Gov’t tables Gaming Authority Bill following calls from religious community for stronger gambling controls (27 July 2026).
- Guyana Chronicle, Gaming Authority Bill targets social fallout from unregulated betting (28 July 2026).
- Guyana Chronicle, PSC supports Gaming Bill (14 August 2026).
- Chabrol, D. (Bloomberg Tax), Guyana to Tighten Online Gambling Regulation, Hike Taxes (16 October 2025).
- CMC / Jamaica Observer, Guyanese govt hints at implementing tougher laws to deal with gambling (17 October 2025).
- Stabroek News, Guyana has made significant strides to improve understanding of laundering risk – CFATF report (25 July 2024).
- Stabroek News, Gaming Policy (22 January 2023).
- Public Gaming Research Institute, With influx of hotels, more casino licenses to be issued in Guyana; gambling act to be amended (2022).
- Stabroek News, SleepIn opens casino (2 December 2020).
- Stabroek News, Money-laundering conviction against Superbet principal requires AML/CFT audit – Gaming Authority (24 May 2019).
- Kaieteur News, Lottery company was advised not to operationalise gambling machines – Gaming Authority (10 October 2017).
- Stabroek News, Draft gaming legislation before year end (1 July 2016).
- Stabroek News, Princess Hotel accused of flexing on local access to casino (10 January 2014).
- Kaieteur News, Are locals allowed in casinos? (23 December 2014).
- Stabroek News, Opposition, religious community uneasy over Jagdeo statement on gambling law (23 March 2010).
- Kaieteur News, Guyana’s first casino opens (21 February 2010).
- Guyana Chronicle, ‘Lotto Company’ launches Supa 6 Christmas promotion (8 October 2024).
- Ministry of Finance / National Procurement and Tender Administration, Extension of Request for Proposals: Guyana Lottery (2022).
