Panama Gambling Licence 2026: JCJ Fees Under Two Resolutions, the 10% That Isn't Exempt, and Law 527

Five pages, one number, no date

When I priced a Panama online licence for a client in August, the first five pages Google returned agreed with each other: USD 40,000 to get the licence, USD 20,000 a year to keep it. None dated the figures. The sixth page said those numbers come from the 2002 text and that a 2020 resolution replaced the fee schedule with B/.50,000 per licence plus bonds. The regulator’s own site, jcj.gob.pa, didn’t resolve on 3 September 2026: not on the www host, not on the apex, not through a proxy. So I couldn’t settle it at source. So I went link by link through the legal chain instead.

The legal chain, and how each link was checked

Instrument	What it does	Verified how
Decreto Ley No. 2 of 10 February 1998	Restructures the Junta de Control de Juegos inside the Ministerio de Economía y Finanzas and assigns its powers	Listed as the founding instrument on the MEF’s JCJ page
Resolución No. 65 of 25 October 2002	Authorises internet gaming contracts: USD 40,000 derecho de llave, USD 20,000 annual state tax, residents of Panama may not play	Pardini & Asociados, Panama City, quotes all three
Resolución No. 11 of 6 March 2020	”Permite la operación de juegos de suerte y azar a través de Internet, dentro de Panamá”	MEF news release of 14 February 2021 confirms existence and purpose; fee articles adviser-reported only
Ley 527 of 23 May 2026	Biometric verification, JCJ blocking powers, fines of B/.25,000-100,000 and up to B/.1,000,000	La Estrella de Panamá; Gaceta Oficial of 28 May 2026

The 2002 resolution is the one every guide describes, whether it says so or not. Its economics are simple: pay USD 40,000 once and USD 20,000 a year, keep bets away from anyone inside Panama, and the income is foreign-source and outside the 25% corporate tax, apart from what you pay the JCJ. Advisers add a seven-year contract term under article 22. I haven’t seen the article, so it stays in the reported column.

The 2020 track and its reported numbers

The MEF’s wording matters. Resolución 11 allows online games of chance “dentro de Panamá” — for players inside the country — which is the mirror image of the 2002 regime that excluded them. It explains why the requirements advisers attach to the 2020 track read like a domestic operation: a .pa domain, offices and a call centre in Panama, a B/.500,000 performance bond, a B/.100,000 annual prize bond, a B/.50,000 derecho de llave per Licencia de Juego, and 10% of gross income paid within the first ten days of each month. One adviser cites these by article, 12 to 15. Nobody I could reach had the Gaceta text. The JCJ was offline. So: plausible, consistent with the MEF release, unverified at source.

Budget for the 2020 numbers anyway. If the JCJ confirms in writing that an international-facing operator still contracts on the 2002 schedule, you’ve over-reserved USD 10,000 and two bonds you can release. The reverse mistake, planning on USD 60,000 and meeting B/.650,000 in fee and bonds, ends the launch. The one thing that would change this advice is a Pleno resolution number in your hand, dated after March 2020, quoting the 2002 fees.

What the JCJ does publish

The MEF page carries the schedule for land-based categories, and it is the best sanity check available for online quotes.

Category	Derecho de llave	Ongoing charge
Casino completo	B/.1,000,000	12% of gross table income; 18% of gross machine income
Sala de máquinas tragamonedas tipo A	B/.500,000	18% of monthly gross
Agencia de apuestas de eventos deportivos	Not published	0.25% of bets captured; 0.50% on international greyhound racing; 2% of prizes paid
Sala de bingo	B/.100,000 where bingo machines are installed, plus B/.175 a month per machine	15% of gross

Against that scale a USD 40,000 online derecho de llave is the cheapest item on the schedule, which is one reason the 2002 figure keeps circulating: it sells. It also shows the JCJ’s habit of charging a percentage of gross on top of a key fee. A 10% online charge under the 2020 rules would be in character, not an outlier.

The 10% that isn’t exempt

“Tax-free Panama” is true of income tax and false of the JCJ. Take gross gaming income of USD 2 million a year:

• Panama, 2020 track as reported: 10% of gross = USD 200,000, plus the derecho de llave and bonds.
• Isle of Man: GBP 36,750 annual fee plus 1.5% duty (the rate that applies up to GBP 20m of yield). USD 2m is about GBP 1.57m at 1.27, so the duty is about GBP 23,600 and the year costs roughly GBP 60,350, or USD 77,000.
• Anjouan: about EUR 15,000 a year, no yield charge.

Two conditions on those numbers. The Isle of Man line depends on the dollar-sterling rate; move it and the gap moves with it. The Panama line assumes “ingresos brutos” means gross gaming revenue. One adviser notes the resolution doesn’t define the term; if the JCJ reads it as stakes rather than revenue, the charge is several times larger, and that single definition is worth a lawyer’s letter before you sign anything.

Under the 2002 track there is no percentage at all (USD 20,000 flat), but you can’t serve Panamanians, and you’re relying on a schedule the regulator may or may not still apply.

Law 527 of 2026: the new floor

Promulgated on 23 May 2026 and published in the Gaceta Oficial on 28 May, Law 527 does four things that touch online operators. Platforms must run biometric identity and age verification to keep under-18s out. The JCJ may order the blocking, suspension or restriction of websites, applications, domains and IP addresses operating without a current Panamanian licence. Breaches of the prevention measures draw fines of B/.25,000 to B/.100,000, doubling on repeat. Operating without a licence draws fines up to B/.1,000,000. Full casinos and type A machine halls must also add facial recognition to their CCTV to catch self-excluded players.

The Executive has six months to issue regulations, so the operative detail lands around November 2026: which biometric standard, what the blocking procedure looks like, how a foreign-licensed site aimed at Panamanians gets treated. If you’re applying now, build the biometric step into the platform spec; it will be a licence condition by the time you’re live.

Verifying a Panama licence claim

The Junta de Control de Juegos is a directorate of the Ministerio de Economía y Finanzas. The Pleno decides; an Executive Secretariat administers, with departments for audits, inspections, statistics and responsible gaming under it. The MEF page gives the address as Avenida Perú, Calle 35 Este, Edificio de Finanzas, 7th floor, Panama City. Online contracts are approved by the Pleno and countersigned by the Contraloría General before the fee falls due. A licence claim is therefore verified by the JCJ, not by a certificate the operator shows you: ask for the resolution number and the countersigned contract, and write to [email protected] to confirm both. Use the MEF page rather than jcj.gob.pa until the standalone domain comes back.

Two red flags. A “Panama-licensed” site that accepts Panamanian players is either on the 2020 domestic track (ask which) or in breach of its 2002 contract. And a “Panama licence from EUR 4,400” issued under the Kuna de Wargandí comarca, which one adviser markets as KUNAISA, is not a JCJ licence and gives no standing with the regulator, the banks or an acquirer.

Panama against Costa Rica, Curaçao and Anjouan

	Panama	Costa Rica	Curaçao	Anjouan
Regulator	JCJ (MEF)	None	CGA	ABGB
Licence number to verify	Pleno resolution + contract	No	Yes	Yes
Government cost	USD 40,000 + 20,000/yr (2002); B/.50,000 + B/.600,000 bonds (2020, reported)	None	EUR 4,592 application; EUR 47,450/yr B2C	EUR 17,828; ~EUR 15,000/yr
Yield-based charge	10% of gross monthly (2020, reported)	Law 9050 headcount tax	Fee-based	None
Serve domestic players	2020 track only	No	No	No
Time to operate	2-8 months	2-6 weeks	3-4 months	1-2 months

My view: Panama is the only one of the four with a regulator that publishes fee schedules and, since May, holds statutory blocking powers, and that is worth paying for if you want a Latin American base the banks recognise. It is not worth paying for if your model needs to know its costs to the dollar before launch, because right now the regulator can’t be reached to tell you. Price the 2020 schedule until the JCJ’s written answer says otherwise.