If a top class cruise has a casino or a gambling room as part of the amenities included for its visitors and stays at least six hours in national watersyou must have a license granted by the Dominican authorities to operate this activity on board.
This is what is proposed by a draft resolution that he Ministry of Finance and Economy has just been submitted to public hearings to receive observations and recommendations.
This is the first instrument of this institution that seeks to regulate a component of the cruise tourisman increasingly booming segment in the country: in 2025 alone, 788 ships arrived in the Dominican Republic with 2,815,732 visitors on board, according to official data.
If approved, the resolution will bind all first class boat -that is, with a capacity greater than 2,000 passengers- to obtain a license that endorses this activity, considering that casinos on cruise ships “can be used as instruments for the money laundering and the financing of terrorism”.
Therefore, the document considers it imperative to apply the same regulation who receive the gambling rooms in first-class hotels to cruise ships that sail or dock in Dominican maritime territory.
Deposit and fees
The draft establishes that license holders must obtain a faithful performance bond of 20 million pesos –or its equivalent in dollars– which must be sent to the Directorate of Casinos and Games of Chance of Finance and Economy.
The emission rate of the license will cost 1 million for cruises between 2,000 and 3,499 passengers and 1.5 million if their capacity is equal to or exceeds 3,500 passengers.
This license only enables the operation of a single gaming room per boat, and cannot be extended or shared with other vessels owned by the same license holder.
Once issued, the license will have a validity of five years and his renewal will cost the 50% of the value of the emission rate valid during the year in which the renewal.
Annual operation fees
In addition to this, the annual operation of the game rooms will be subject to the payment of operation fees according to the following scale:
- Casinos with a table volume between one and 20 tables: they must pay 600,000 pesos annually
- Between 21 and 40 tables: they will pay 700,000 pesos a year
- From table 41 onwards: they will pay 800,000 pesos annually.
A maximum of 15 tickets are imposed on all stops. national waters throughout the year, so the holder of the casino license on board cruise ships must pay 15,000 pesos for each additional entry.
These rates must be paid by the operatedr in the National Treasury after submitting the license application, either in pesos or dollars, and the 100% indexing of the Consumer Price Index (CPI).
The draft resolution states that any legal entity interested in operating a gambling room or casino on a cruise ship must request an operating license from the Directorate of Casinos and Games of Chance of the Ministry of Finance and Economy.
The documents required for issuance must be requested with a copy certified by the competent entity, apostilled and duly translated into Spanish by a judicial interpreter, whose signature must be legalized by the Attorney General’s Office of the Republic; This is in the case of foreign commercial companies.
