Paraguay Gaming License

Can you apply for a Paraguay gaming license in 2026?

No permanent application window exists. Entry to Paraguay runs through CONAJZAR tenders, and each tender covers one game type. In 2026 the quiniela tender closed with two of three concessions awarded. Sports betting and online casino remain unopened, which makes Paraguay one of the few markets where windows are genuinely expected.

Quiniela is settled. CONAJZAR called Licitación Pública N° 01/2025 in November 2025 and awarded two concessions by Resolución N° 47/2026, adopted in the ordinary session of 17 April 2026. The winners were the consortium of DARUMA SAM S.A., CAPRONI S.A. and DATAFORGE S.A., and Technologies Development of Paraguay S.A. Three slots were available, so one remains formally unfilled.

Sports betting is legally open and practically shut. DARUMA SAM S.A., trading as Apostala, holds the concession until roughly 2028. Ley N° 7438/2025 permits two more, and CONAJZAR has said publicly it wants to tender them early. The process is stalled by the live DARUMA SAM S.A. contract, and no call had been published as at September 2026.

Online casino is the newest door. Ley N° 7438/2025 recognises it as a regulated game, and the Registro Nacional de Operadores already carries casino online certificates. No tender for new concessions had been called as at September 2026. New game types start under a provisional authorisation, and Article 20 of Ley N° 1.016/1997 as amended requires a public tender three years after exploitation begins.

Plan around the notice period, because it is short. Article 10 of Ley N° 1.016/1997 obliges CONAJZAR to publish the call at least ten times in two national newspapers. Bids open a minimum of thirty days after that. Thirty days is not enough time to build a bid from nothing. Anyone planning a gambling license in Paraguay needs the file ready before the call appears.

Who regulates gambling in Paraguay?

The Comisión Nacional de Juegos de Azar (CONAJZAR) regulates gambling in Paraguay. Ley N° 1.016/1997 created it. Ley N° 7438/2025 then moved it out of the Ministerio de Economía y Finanzas and into the Dirección Nacional de Ingresos Tributarios (DNIT). CONAJZAR now sits there as a deconcentrated organ with functional autonomy, chaired by a DNIT representative.

Three bodies matter, and they are easy to confuse.

CONAJZAR's board now seats a DNIT representative as chair. The other seats go to the governorships, the municipalities, the Ministerio del Interior and the Dirección de Beneficencia y Ayuda Social. Decreto N° 3846/2025 also created a Dirección General de Juegos de Azar as the technical arm that carries out field enforcement.

Official sources have not caught up with the statute. The Ministerio de Economía y Finanzas website still lists CONAJZAR among its dependencies, while DNIT's institutional portal runs a CONAJZAR section of its own. Go by the statute: the transfer to DNIT is enacted.

What changed under Law 7438/2025?

Ley N° 7438/2025 was published on 6 January 2025 and implemented by Decreto N° 3846/2025 of 7 May 2025. The reform ended two single-operator monopolies and recognised casino online as a regulated game. The same law moved CONAJZAR into DNIT and gave the regulator power to block unlicensed gambling sites.

Read that last figure carefully. The 9.93% is a share in how collected canon is divided between the Treasury, the Dirección de Beneficencia y Ayuda Social, the municipalities and the departments. It is not a tax rate on operator revenue, and nothing in Ley N° 7438/2025 makes it one.

What gambling licences does CONAJZAR award?

CONAJZAR awards concessions for every game of national character listed in Article 20 of Ley N° 1.016/1997 as amended. That list covers casinos, quiniela, bingo, instant and deferred lotteries, nationwide raffles, telebingo, hipódromo, lotto, sports betting, quiniséis and casino online. Games of departmental or municipal scope are licensed by governorships and municipalities instead.

The Registro Nacional de Operadores is the practical way to check who holds what. CONAJZAR created it by Resolución N° 110 of 30 November 2015, and it names each certified operator, the game type certified and the certificate's validity. The register is the primary record, and it settles most questions about who is licensed for what.

One category sits outside the national tender list. Venues for electronic games of chance are licensed at municipal level under Article 23 of Ley N° 1.016/1997. A slot-hall business is therefore a municipal permit, not a CONAJZAR concession.

How much does a Paraguay gaming license cost?

The Paraguay gaming license cost carries no fixed state fee. Paraguay publishes no licence price and no statutory gaming tax rate. Cost has three components instead. You buy the tender documents, you offer a canon in your bid, and you post the guarantees the pliego requires.

The canon is the number that decides everything. Article 11 of Ley N° 1.016/1997 lists the canon offered first among the award criteria, ahead of financial capacity, legal capacity, track record and the guarantee. So you set your own price against rival bids. Bid too low and a rival takes the seat. Bid too high and you win a concession your margin cannot carry for five years.

Two mechanics affect cash flow. Article 13 requires the canon to be paid within the first five working days of the month after the revenue arises. Article 14 charges 1% of the monthly canon for every ten days of delay. After a month of arrears CONAJZAR may draw on your guarantee, and after ninety days it may revoke the concession.

At the Banco Central del Paraguay reference rate of G. 5,954.22 per US dollar on 2 September 2026, G. 100,000,000 is roughly USD 16,800 and G. 9,500,000,000 is roughly USD 1,600,000. Treat both conversions as indicative, since the guaraní moves and the tender figures are set in local currency.

What are the requirements for a Paraguay gaming concession?

Winning a bid in a public tender is the only route to a gaming license in Paraguay. Ley N° 1.016/1997, Ley N° 7438/2025 and Decreto N° 3846/2025 set the substance. Each pliego de bases y condiciones then sets the detail for its own tender. Requirements fall into four groups.

Standing to bid. Under Article 11, CONAJZAR scores legal capacity, financial capacity, and track record and experience in the game being tendered. Clean hands are tested directly. CONAJZAR's published tender rules exclude bidders with criminal or police records, bidders under judicial interdiction, and bidders in insolvency. They also exclude anyone in default on obligations to the Paraguayan state, unpaid canon included, and anyone reported for clandestine gambling. For companies, the record test applies to every director and to the local representatives.

Corporate form. Ley N° 1.016/1997 does not reserve concessions to Paraguayan companies. CONAJZAR's own tender rules have admitted individuals and companies, whether or not they are domiciled in Paraguay. A bidder that is not domiciled there must appoint a local representative. Bidders may compete individually or in a consortium. The 2026 quiniela award went to a consortium, so that structure is proven in practice.

Money. Article 9 requires a bank guarantee or surety insurance covering the bid amount for six months, extended across the concession term, plus the canon offer itself. Where the canon is a percentage, Article 12 lets CONAJZAR appoint auditors over the concessionaire's accounts.

Technical and operational. Article 5 of Decreto N° 3846/2025 requires gaming machines and IT systems to meet CONAJZAR's technical rules and to be homologated by DNIT. They must also hold certification from an accredited inspection body with no interest in gaming operations. Systems must maintain an online or real-time connection to CONAJZAR. Licensed online operators use the .bet.py zone and display the regulatory mark and their authorisation number. Players must be 18 or over. Prizes are paid through the local banking system in guaraníes.

How are gambling operators taxed in Paraguay?

Paraguay sets no gaming tax rate for operators. The main fiscal burden is the canon, and your own tender bid sets it. General business taxes then apply under Ley N° 6380/2019, on a territorial basis that reaches Paraguayan-source income only.

Player prize tax lands on the operator as a duty. Decreto N° 4661/2020 makes the gambling operator the withholding agent. You deduct 8% of the cash prize at payout, and that withholding is the player's single and final payment. The obligation has been in force since 1 January 2021.

No universal "X% of GGR" figure exists for Paraguay. Ley N° 7438/2025 allocates 9.93% of nationally collected canon to the Tesoro General. The remainder is split by formula between the Dirección de Beneficencia y Ayuda Social, the municipalities and the departments. That is a budget split, not an operator rate. A single Paraguayan GGR rate quoted without a specific concession behind it has no source in law.

What technical and player protection obligations apply?

Decreto N° 3846/2025 carries most of the technical obligations, and CONAJZAR's game rules carry the rest. Article 5 governs gaming machines and IT systems. Article 8 governs DNIT's review of CONAJZAR's own documents. Ley N° 7438/2025 supplies the enforcement powers behind both.

Systems and homologation. Gaming machines and concessionaires' IT systems must meet the technical specifications in CONAJZAR's regulations and be homologated by DNIT. They must also carry certification from an accredited inspection body unconnected to gaming operations, and maintain an online or real-time connection to CONAJZAR where required.

Document review. Article 4 of Decreto N° 3846/2025 makes DNIT homologation of the pliego a precondition for authorising any tender call. Under Article 8, DNIT reviews CONAJZAR's tender documents and game rules and returns them to be corrected where it finds inconsistencies.

Player-facing duties. Licensed online operators use the .bet.py zone, which lets a player tell a regulated site from an unlicensed one. They also display the regulatory mark and their authorisation number. Players must be 18 or over. Ley N° 6903/2022 and Decreto N° 938/2023 add protections for minors around slot machines, enforced jointly by municipalities and CONAJZAR.

Enforcement. The president of CONAJZAR may order the blocking of channels, domains, websites and platforms. The power covers anything used to operate, sell, pay for, advertise or commercialise online gambling without authorisation. CONAJZAR began issuing those orders in September 2025, covering domain variants as well as primary addresses. The Centro Nacional de Computación of the Universidad Nacional de Asunción carries them out as national DNS provider.

Advertising. Paraguay has no dedicated gambling advertising code yet. Promotion is permitted, only operators in the Registro Nacional de Operadores may be promoted, and affiliates are not licensed separately. Payment blocking and app-store removals are not established practice in Paraguay, so treat them as unproven.

What is the status of the online casino and sports betting tenders?

Quiniela is the only monopoly actually broken so far. Sports betting stays with its incumbent, and online casino has a legal basis but no tender. The table below dates every step. Each status reflects the position at the time of checking, so confirm the current calendar with CONAJZAR before committing budget.

Award is not final at CONAJZAR. Article 8 of Ley N° 1.016/1997 requires the Executive Power to approve concession decisions for games of national character. That is why the April 2026 quiniela award was followed by an Executive act in May. Build the step into any timeline you model.

How can an operator enter the Paraguayan market now?

Four routes exist, and none of them is an application. You can prepare for an expected tender, or join a consortium with a Paraguayan partner. You can also supply an existing concessionaire as a B2B vendor, or buy into a company that already holds a concession. Choose by your timetable and by how much control you need.

Prepare for the expected tenders. Online casino has no concession awarded yet, and sports betting has two seats permitted but not tendered. Readiness means the pliego criteria satisfied beforehand, audited financials in hand and guarantee facilities arranged. It also means a canon model that survives five years, not one bid day.

Bid as a consortium. CONAJZAR's tender rules allow bidders to compete jointly. The 2026 quiniela award went to a consortium of DARUMA SAM S.A., CAPRONI S.A. and DATAFORGE S.A. Read that result both ways: the consortium route works, and the winning consortium included the sports betting incumbent.

Supply the concessionaires. A platform or content business can sell into existing holders without a concession of its own. The commercial requirement is technical: systems built to CONAJZAR specifications, homologated by DNIT, and able to hold a real-time connection to the regulator.

Buy in. Taking equity in a current concessionaire converts a closed tender calendar into a transaction you control the timing of. Concession transfer conditions belong in diligence from the first day.

One route does not work. Serving Paraguayan players on an offshore licence is not a soft alternative to a concession. Paraguayan law classifies such platforms as clandestine, and CONAJZAR has been ordering them blocked since September 2025.

What are the drawbacks of the Paraguayan gambling regime?

Paraguay suits operators who can win a competitive bid and then wait for the call. A Paraguay gambling licence suits nobody who needs to launch this quarter. Eight drawbacks deserve weighing before you spend anything, and most of them follow from the tender model itself.

No entry on demand. There is no application, so CONAJZAR's tender calendar decides when you can enter, and Article 10 gives only thirty days' notice before bids open.

You cannot know the cost before you bid. You set the canon yourself in a competitive procedure. Malta and Curaçao let you budget from a published schedule, and Paraguay does not.

Three seats per game. Sports betting already has one taken until roughly 2028, which leaves two, and only once a tender is actually called.

Everything is in Spanish. The pliego, the procedure and the game rules are Spanish-language, and so is everything you send CONAJZAR.

The legal base is young. Decreto N° 3846/2025 arrived in May 2025 and CONAJZAR's detailed game rules are still being written, so some parameters are not publicly settled.

The regulator is a tax office. CONAJZAR now sits inside DNIT, which means supervision carries a fiscal priority and audit is a permanent feature.

The market is small. Quiniela is reported at around USD 120 million a year nationally, so Paraguay is a position to hold rather than a volume market.

An award is not the end of it. Article 8 of Ley N° 1.016/1997 makes every national concession subject to Executive Power approval. Paraguayan gaming awards have also been contested administratively and in court before. A favourable CONAJZAR vote is therefore not a final answer.

One thing a Paraguayan concession is not. It is not a soft offshore licence, and it grants no regional or international coverage. A CONAJZAR concession authorises one game type inside Paraguayan territory, and nothing beyond it.

Why choose MGL for the Paraguayan market

MGL does not promise you a Paraguay gaming licence, because no consultant can: CONAJZAR awards concessions by competitive tender and the Executive Power approves them. What MGL does is put you in a position to win one. That work starts long before a call is published, and it is mostly commercial modelling rather than form-filling.

• Read the pliego de bases y condiciones against your business and turn its criteria into a document checklist with owners and dates.

• Model the canon. A percentage of gross monthly collections has a five-year effect on margin, and there is a point where your bid stops being winnable or stops being viable.

• Build the consortium: the Paraguayan participant, the representative a non-domiciled bidder needs, and the corporate and record checks the tender rules impose on every director.

• Prepare the technical file for DNIT homologation and the real-time CONAJZAR connection, so systems are not the reason a strong bid fails.

MGL has delivered 300+ licences across offshore, onshore and EU-regulated jurisdictions, which is where the tender-document and financial-file discipline comes from.