The online gaming and sports betting market in Peru is in full swing. After the entry into force of Law No. 31557, which regulates the Exploitation of Remote Gaming and Remote Sports Betting, providers and operators rushed to present their respective documentation to participate and be made official by the regulatory body Mincetur. Regarding suppliers, according to Mincetur, 144 service providers were registered and 8 international certification laboratories were accredited. Likewise, providers submitted 184 applications for approval of technological platforms, gaming programs, progressive systems, and gaming modalities. Meanwhile, 145 authorization requests have been submitted by national and international operating companies to be part of this activity in the South American country.
To try to understand these processes, in this article, we are going to analyze the characteristics of each of them.
REQUIREMENTS FOR SUPPLIERS AND LABORATORIES
From the suppliers’ point of view, the iGaming approval process in Peru consists of the adaptation of the technical requirements of a certain product (platform or games) to the technical requirements proposed by the Peruvian regulation, in charge of Mincetur, using for this purpose an accredited laboratory in Peru which certifies compliance with these requirements, through the so-called ‘certificate of compliance.’ To date, in Peru, there are eight accredited laboratories.
This request for approval must be resolved by the Mincetur in accordance with the provisions of the Supreme Decree No. 005-2023-MINCETUR, within a period of no more than 30 business days counted from the day following the submission of the application. In addition to the application, the service provider must include (in almost all products, with some exceptions) its registration and the aforementioned certificate of compliance issued by a certification laboratory registered in Peru.
It should be noted that, currently, there is only one approval record (registration number PT0000001), corresponding to a platform provider company. Likewise, Mincetur reported in verbal communications that there are already more than 200 games with homologation records corresponding to various suppliers.
This procedure is quite positive, but it requires more agility from the supplier and the laboratory. The supplier must quickly decide its certification with one of the accredited laboratories and deliver the technical information required for the evaluation. For their part, laboratories must rapidly issue compliance certificates.
We know that, due to the high demand for services that certifiers have, they are scheduling studies for two months after submitting the application. This is a determining part to establish the time it will take for the approval of a product. For this reason, I have been recommending bringing forward this turn since before the validity of Law No. 31557, which regulates the exploitation of remote sports betting and gaming, modified by Law No. 31806.
THE SITUATION OF OPERATORS
This time is also decisive for operators in the process of adaptation to the law, because when exploiting products (platform and/or games), they are forced to have the approval record in the following 90 calendar days, counted from the day after having been authorized to operate, either a technological platform for sports betting or remote gaming, by the DGJCMT of Mincetur.
To date, Mincetur authorized five operating companies to offer remote sports betting and remote betting games. This number is expected to double this week.
The entity is still within the deadlines established by law and regulation to be able to make a decision denying or granting the corresponding authorizations to the applicants. In any case, it should be announcing the status of applications during this week. It is also necessary to mention those requests whose deadlines have been extended due to not complying with the requirements of the law in the first order, and that have been observed and can be corrected. In these cases, companies have 10 business days to respond to these observations. If Mincetur still determines that they did not comply with the stipulated requirements, the applications will be considered inadmissible, and these processes will be terminated.
I must clarify that, in this administrative process, administrative silence in favor of the applicant is not applicable. On the contrary, the delay in resolving an authorization request by Mincetur applies negative administrative silence. Therefore, for well-founded reasons, the entity could extend the deadline established in the standard to resolve platform exploitation authorization requests.
A SERIES OF PROCESSES THAT MUST BE FOLLOWED
It is necessary to indicate that we are just in process 1 of adapting operators to the regulation, which, in my opinion, could be fully completed in the month of June 2024. Currently, companies are subject to a legal order evaluation, in accordance with the general corporate law. There is also an economic-financial evaluation of each company, its partners, and its representatives.
With these two instances approved, the operator is notified through a Directorial Resolution, by which it is resolved: 1) Authorize the exploitation of the technological platform for remote sports betting or betting games (they are distinct resolutions generated in different files and requests), also approving its website for a period of 6 years; 2) Establish the validity of this authorization, conditional on compliance with the requirements of presentation of the records and approval of the products that the operator has been exploiting as a requirement provided for in literals f) and g) of article 8 of the Regulation; 3) Establish a period of 90 days to comply with the presentation of the aforementioned homologation records, under penalty of revoking the authorization; 4) Grant the authorized company an identification record as an authorized operator; 5) Establish as a condition precedent to the start of operations the granting of the guarantee or surety policy, provided for in articles 22 and 24 of the Law, and to deliver it to Mincetur, under warning of incurring an administrative infraction; 6) The authorization granted does not authorize the opening and operation of sports betting gaming rooms; 7) All the requirements and conditions that served as the basis for this authorization must be maintained during the period of validity thereof, under warning of canceling the authorization granted; 8) The right is reserved to verify the information and/or documentation presented by the applicant, as well as to establish sanctions or initiate legal actions that may be applicable in the event of any discrepancy with the reality of the facts, and 9) It is stated that a municipality may only grant operating licenses to companies that are registered on the Mincetur website.
The second process refers to the request for authorization of sports betting rooms (physical operation), which can only be carried out in this adaptation process once the exploitation of remote (online) sports betting technological platforms is approved. From that moment on, they will have only 30 calendar days to submit the corresponding request per room. The pre-existence of their operation must be accredited to the regulations and exceed the distancing requirements of a minimum of 150 meters for regular education schools, churches, or temples.
If the physical operation belongs to an operator other than the operator authorized to operate the remote (online) sports betting platform, in order to authorize its rooms, the company must prove a commercial relationship through contracts. Consequently, for our market, the physical operator of a remote sports betting room will only be able to operate if it has authorization to operate an (online) platform or be related to an authorized operator of this type.
This room authorization process has a peremptory period of 60 calendar days from when each room was authorized to be able to present the products that are being exploited with an approval record. We reiterate that, to date, only the five companies authorized to operate remote sports betting platforms and remote betting games are permitted to request authorization for their remote sports betting rooms, as they should already be doing, in response to the short time granted of 30 calendar days. This is further reinforced if we consider that, in the country, we have companies that have hundreds of remote sports betting rooms.
I am convinced that, beyond its time inaccuracies, this process will be satisfactory as long as each of the actors assumes their responsibility to face the time and technical demands established by the standard. The final reward is to be present in an attractive Peruvian gaming market of maturity and constant evolution, which benefits the industry and the country’’s economy. Those who have questions or want to know more about these processes can contact me, as owner of Solano Abogados, at the email [email protected]. You can also find me next Monday, June 10th, at the fourth edition of G&M Events Peru.