The director of casinos and gaming at the Ministry of Hacienda, Omar Chalas, says his agency has shut down 5,242 unauthorized betting shops nationwide in the first half of the year. Chalas says no arrests have yet been made. He said between 17 February and 8 May 2017, the department confiscated and made unusable more than 12,000 pieces of equipment used in the shops. Chalas estimates the illegal shops should be paying RD$5 billion in taxes.
The Ministry inspection crews must carry and present IDs and the owners can verify the authenticity of these badges by searching online. The measure has the support of the two associations of sports betting and gaming, the Asociación Nacional de Bancas Deportivas and the Federación Nacional de Bancas de Loterías de la República Dominicana (FENABANCA).
There are an estimated 100,000 unauthorized gaming and sports betting shops operating nationwide, said Wilson de los Santos. He estimated for every legal shop, there are three unlicensed operations functioning.
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Diario Libre
14 July 2017
