In the Dominican Republic, gaming businesses are more common than pharmacies and grocery shops. The Ministry of Hacienda just recently authorized generous concessions for betting and lottery establishments that have been freely operating, albeit illegally nationwide. In a report on the new resolutions, Diario Libre newspaper sums up what has happened: “If the betting shops don’t adjust to the law, then the law will adjust to them.”
Michel Dicent, executive director of the National Federation of Lottery Shops, told Diario Libre there are around 150,000 betting shops in operation that employ around 70,000 persons. Most of the gaming shops currently operate illegally. The Ministry of Hacienda acknowledges it had only authorized the operation of 30,750 nationwide. The new Ministry of Hacienda resolutions legalize these businesses. The Ministry of Hacienda argues that the legalization will enable the state to earn more income.
As part of the concessions granted to the businesses, the Ministry of Hacienda announced it is reducing the legal distance to be kept between one and another gaming shop. Ministry of Hacienda Resolution 005-2019 removes the 200-meter separation between one and another betting shop. Another, the Resolution 006-2019 reduces from 400 meters to 200 meters the separation from the gaming shops to institutions such as schools, hospitals and churches.
Previously, legislators in mid 2017 exempted gaming shops from the controls imposed by the Asset Laundering Law. The ruling PLD party is majority in Congress.
Financial analyst Alejandro Fernández has called the lotteries and betting shops “an economic cancer” and has written he cannot understand the Ministry of Hacienda’s measures, as reported in Diario Libre. He argues the poor are the most affected. He points to the statistic of RD$70 billion that the president of the Hacienda Commission of the Senate said Dominicans spent on gaming in 2014.
Sociologist Cándido Mercedes told a Diario Libre reporter, that while the measure may be good for state finances, it is not good for Dominican society. “More betting banks means a greater drain on the meager budget of poor and vulnerable sectors of Dominican society … Socially, that indicates a culture of hope based on chance, not on its actual capabilities,” he says.
Read more in Spanish:
Diario Libre
Diario Libre
Hacienda
Hacienda
18 February 2019
