Guyana to tighten gambling laws amid social concerns

Charlotte Capewell

20 October 2025 at 7:31am UTC-4

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The Guyanese government is preparing to introduce tougher regulations and higher taxes on gambling amid growing concern from religious and public health organizations over its social and economic effect on families.

Speaking at his weekly press briefing, Guyana’s Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo said the spread of mobile betting has turned gambling into a significant national concern. “The moment when you have four or five hundred outlets in every village across the country, and it’s all run on an app, it’s creating a major social problem,” he said.

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Initially, gambling in Guyana was restricted to hotel-based casinos as a way to boost tourism, and licences were issued under strict conditions, including a minimum of 150 hotel rooms.

However, Jagdeo noted that this system has since developed into hundreds of small outlets and app-based operations offering 24-hour access to betting.

“What we have now is gambling on demand. It’s in every home; it’s an app,” he added.

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Jagdeo said that families were being torn apart and income drained by gambling, and that while the government would not restrict citizens’ rights, it intended to impose stronger licensing and tax measures on the industry.

He also said that there needed to be a cultural shift, warning that gambling undermines long-term financial goals like homeownership.

Charlotte Capewell brings her passion for storytelling and expertise in writing, researching, and the gambling industry to every article she writes. Her specialties include the US gambling industry, regulator legislation, igaming, and more.

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The Backstory

How a niche casino policy morphed into a nationwide app economy

Guyana’s plan to tighten gambling rules did not emerge in a vacuum. The country’s original casino framework was built as a tourism lever, limiting licenses to hotel properties with sizable room counts. That walled-garden model has been eclipsed by a surge in small retail betting kiosks and always-on mobile platforms that bypass the old thresholds. The shift mirrors a broader trend across emerging markets: what began as controlled, destination-based gambling now operates as a ubiquitous consumer service, mediated by e-wallets, push notifications and simplified onboarding.

As mobile access has grown, risk has democratized, bringing higher exposure to low- and middle-income households. Policymakers in the region increasingly frame this as a financial stability issue as much as a public health one. The proposed Guyanese measures—tougher licensing and higher taxes—would aim to reintroduce friction into a sector that has made wagering seamless. The stakes include revenue integrity for the state, competitive parity for licensed operators and limits on social harm for households that cannot absorb volatile losses.

The government is also signaling a cultural reset, not just a compliance update. Redrawing the line between permitted access and predatory design is now a central policy question across jurisdictions where online betting has outpaced legacy law.

Regional momentum to curb frictionless gambling

Guyana’s move lands amid a wave of policy experiments to make impulsive betting harder. In the Philippines, lawmakers have proposed to rein in how digital wallets embed access to gaming platforms. The initiative led by Rep. Jonathan Keith Flores would strip out in-app gambling links, tighten top-up flows and discourage credit-fueled wagering, targeting the ease-of-use features that push users toward quick bets. The bill’s authors cast the effort not as prohibition but as the removal of shortcuts that convert convenience into compulsion. That push is detailed in reporting on Philippine lawmakers targeting e-wallet access to gambling apps, which also notes complementary calls to block wallet use for gambling and cancel noncompliant operator licenses.

This matters for Guyana because the same plumbing—wallet rails, rapid KYC, micro-top-ups—powers its app-based betting surge. If regulators want to curb harm without banning products, they often target intermediaries: payments, ad tech and marketing automation. Guyana’s intent to tighten licensing could be coupled with obligations on payments, player verification and spending controls, borrowing from peers that have made these tools central to reform.

Courtrooms and censors redraw the online map

Beyond payments, access itself is in play. Chile’s high court has moved decisively to shut the door on unlicensed digital betting. In a split decision, the Third Constitutional Chamber held that online gambling is illegal unless expressly authorized, clearing the way for ISPs to block offending sites. The ruling, outlined in coverage of Chile’s Supreme Court clarifying online gambling laws, leaves state-backed lotteries, racetracks and licensed casinos as the country’s only legal venues. Regulators cited hundreds of platforms operating in the gray market, a scale that made voluntary compliance untenable.

Bangladesh has taken a different route: enforcing its cyber safety code against promotional conduits. In an Oct. 12 notice, the National Cyber Security Agency accused ESPNcricinfo of carrying ads tied to betting platforms, warning that violations of the Cyber Safety Ordinance 2025 could trigger a block. The agency also raised questions about registration and tax compliance. The case, summarized in Bangladesh’s allegation that ESPN breached online gambling advertising laws, underscores how advertising inventory—not just operators—sits in regulators’ line of sight.

These paths—court-ordered blocking in Chile, ad enforcement in Bangladesh—illustrate a spectrum of tools Guyana could use alongside licensing changes. Site blocking, ad restrictions and tax compliance probes form a toolkit that can be dialed up or down without a full ban, and each exerts pressure at a different point in the value chain.

Marketing crackdowns reach VIP and direct messages

Another front is outbound marketing. Australia’s communications regulator recently fined Tabcorp AU$4 million for breaching spam rules, citing thousands of SMS and WhatsApp promos without opt-outs or proper sender details. The case, detailed in ACMA’s fine of Tabcorp for spam-law breaches, emphasized that “VIP” programs can include vulnerable customers and that personalized outreach must still respect consent and disclosure standards. PointsBet was also penalized for messaging people on self-exclusion lists, showing that enforcement now targets the mechanics of reengagement as much as the content of ads.

For Guyana, where app-based operators rely on retention loops and high-frequency messaging, marketing compliance will likely sit alongside tax and licensing updates. Clear opt-outs, suppression of self-excluded accounts, independent audits and recordkeeping become baseline requirements when regulators are looking to reduce harm without erasing legal play.

Brand integrity and sponsorship under the microscope

The Philippines is also putting pressure on how licensees align their brands. The national regulator ordered a licensed operator to end an advertising tie-up with an online TV program featuring sexually explicit content, citing industry integrity standards. The action, covered in PAGCOR’s order to terminate a controversial sponsorship, shows how governance now extends beyond player-facing mechanics to the reputational footprint of partnerships. Even when allegations in public forums overreach, regulators are moving to set boundaries on where gambling brands appear and what they endorse.

Guyana’s policymakers have signaled concern about the wider social fabric—family finances, long-term household goals—so brand integrity and content adjacency could become part of any tightening. That might include sponsorship codes, restrictions on influencer tie-ins and clearer separation from adult or explicit content, aligning marketing norms with consumer protection aims.

What tighter rules could mean for operators and players

If Guyana follows peers, expect a layered regime: higher license thresholds and fees to squeeze out lightly capitalized storefronts; stricter audits of payment flows and KYC; cooling-off features inside apps; ad and sponsorship codes; and penalties that scale with violations rather than flat fines. Enforcement could blend tax reviews, ad-tech takedowns and, if necessary, ISP blocks for unlicensed operators, as seen in Chile.

Operators that pivot early—adding robust spending limits, real-time affordability checks and clean consent practices—will have an advantage when rules harden. Players may see fewer instant-deposit options, fewer promotional messages and more prompts to set limits or take breaks. The ecosystem would move away from frictionless betting toward a managed-risk model.

The broader lesson from the region is that regulators are no longer treating online gambling as a silo. It is now approached as a payments, advertising and platform-design issue, with accountability pushed across the chain. Guyana’s next steps will signal whether it intends to reset the industry’s incentives or simply tax it more heavily. Either way, the era of growth-by-frictionless design appears to be ending.