Peru: CEO of Apuesta Total questions application of Selective Consumption Tax on online gambling

The CEO of Apuesta Total, Gonzalo Pérez, discussed the application of the Selective Consumption Tax (ISC) to online gambling in Peru as of January 1, 2025, and, in exclusive statements to Yogonet, he said that the new tax generates "a very complicated situation."

On December 14, the Peruvian Ministry of Economy and Finance published the supreme decrees regulating the application of the online gambling tax, set at 12% of the net income (GGR), and the ISC for bets placed, which will be 1% for each bet placed.

As established, the application of both taxes will come into effect on the first calendar day of the month following its publication, that is to say, on January 1, 2025.

Gonzalo Pérez considered that the 12% tax, applied every month, does not cause "major inconvenience", but that the ISC generates "a very complicated situation because, to apply it at the moment the bet is generated and to transfer it to the player, it is necessary to modify critical components of the platform."

"It will be necessary to certify before the laboratories and approve before Mincetur again, a term that we estimate will not be less than eight months. [...] If the platform is modified and we operate it without certification and, therefore, without homologation, we are exposed to very high fines and even the cancellation of the authorization," he warned.

On this basis, he explained that if the platform takes a bet of PEN 100, it must verify that the balance of the wallet is PEN 101 and deduct that amount in two different concepts, one for the bet and the other for ISC.

At the same time, if such modification is not made and the operator assumes the ISC, he warned that the online sector in Peru would be "facing a confiscation risk", since 1% of the bet amount represents 20% of the GGR and, if we add to that the 12% tax, we would be totaling 32% of taxes.

"This would make the operation unfeasible and would not take into account sentence 009-2001 of the Constitutional Court, where it stated that a 20% rate was confiscatory," he noted.

In this context, Perez expressed: "It is regrettable that the State is putting us against the State itself because, given the deadlines, they will force us to fail to comply either with the tax collection office or with the regulator."

Finally, he estimated that the application of the ISC is anti-technical because it taxes what is wagered and, consequently, it favors the transfer "towards illegal gambling, with which there will be no collection."

Check here the supreme decree that approves the ISC regulation for online gambling.