Is Online Gambling Legal in Paraguay?
Yes, at operators authorised by CONAJZAR. Gambling in Paraguay is governed by Law 1016 of 1997, reworked by Law 7438, promulgated on 3 January 2025. The 2025 law listed the games that can be authorised, added online casino, poker included, among them, and made any game not on that list prohibited. Since January 2025 CONAJZAR has worked as a deconcentrated body of the national tax authority, the DNIT, with its own functional and administrative autonomy.
Paraguay treats unauthorised gambling as a criminal matter. The law makes it an offence to operate, sponsor or take part in gambling that CONAJZAR has not authorised, and the most serious cases carry up to five years in prison.
How Paraguay Taxes Gambling Prizes
Since 1 January 2021, Decree 4661 of 2020 has required the companies holding gambling concessions to withhold personal income tax on cash prizes. The rate is 8% of the full prize, it applies to prizes of PYG 500,000 or more, and it is a single and final payment, so there is nothing more to settle on that prize afterwards. Smaller prizes are paid without withholding.
Colombia, by comparison, withholds 20% on large prizes, and gambling tax rules around the world show where Paraguay’s flat 8% sits.
Paraguay’s Gambling Rules in 2025 and 2026
Law 7438 opened markets that used to belong to one operator: quiniela and sports betting can now go to up to three companies per category through public tender, and casino concessions can run for up to 20 years depending on the investment, without extension. Winners have 60 working days to claim a prize, after which it goes to the FONARESS fund.
Change is not over. In October 2026 the Executive sent Congress a bill to replace CONAJZAR with a new regulator, the Dirección Nacional de Juegos de Azar (DINAJZAR), with its own budget, national powers over licensing and sanctions, and the power to monitor and block websites. The bill would repeal the 1997 law and bring online gambling under it whenever the connection or the bet is made from Paraguayan territory. It had not been passed by mid October 2026.
Casino Payment Methods in Paraguay
Keeping your balance in guaraníes means the amount you deposit is the amount you play with, with no exchange spread either way. Paraguayans pay widely by bank transfer, debit card and the Tigo Money mobile wallet, and which methods each casino accepts for deposits and withdrawals is listed with the other casino payment methods, along with any minimum amounts.
CONAJZAR Authorised and International Casinos in Paraguay
A CONAJZAR-authorised operator withholds the right tax on your prize and answers to a Paraguayan regulator that can sanction or suspend it. An international casino answers to the authority named on its card instead, which is where a complaint about a withdrawal goes, and Paraguay’s rules on prize tax and unclaimed prizes apply to the concession holders rather than to it. Because Paraguayan law covers taking part in unauthorised gambling as well as running it, the licence on the card matters more here than the size of the welcome offer. The gap between a local licence and an offshore one, and our page of casinos by licence, show what each regulator covers.
Responsible Gambling in Paraguay
Gambling in Paraguay is for adults aged 18 and over. At any online casino, the tools on your own account are the ones to use: a deposit cap, a cooling-off period or a full self-exclusion, ideally set before you start. A national self-exclusion register, which some countries use to cover every licensed site at once, shows what the next step could look like.
Choosing the Best Online Casino in Paraguay
Start with the licence on the card, then compare the product: how fast each casino pays out, which payment methods it supports, whether it holds balances in guaraníes and how heavy the wagering on its bonus is. Across the river, Argentina licenses casinos province by province, and the online casinos in Argentina page shows how differently a neighbour handles the same question.
