Rugged. Rainforested. Culturally-instituted. Stably-governed. Those are four words that perfectly describe the Central American country officially known as the Republic of Costa Rica. With about five million people, Costa Rica is a hotspot for tourists — mainly for its Pacific and Caribbean coastlines, volcanoes, beaches, and biodiversity.

Costa Rica is a unique jurisdiction located in Central America, and a casino license is not provided here. Despite the fact that more than 400 online casinos and bookmakers are currently registered in Costa Rica, the country has not developed legislation regulating the conduct of online gambling business on the Internet. Costa Rica online gambling is illegal in the region for residents, and there’s a lot to explore. Read onto learning more about the condition in the state and about the land-based casino that is continually making revenue. Ranged from age 32 to 79 with an av erage age rangin g between 48. Of operation il legal gambling bu sinesses av erage 2. Costa Rica with mana gement of the bett ors and collecti ons carried.

The basic reason for this is that Costa Rica has much looser gambling restrictions than the United States does. Because of this, MyBookie, as long as it meets the legal standards in Costa Rica, is allowed to be utilized by US players, due to the fact that it is a) outside of the country and thus its legal jurisdiction and b) a licensed operator.

Accordingly, casinos and gambling facilities in Costa Rica are greatly lucrative, and they carry a great deal of intrigue that makes them one of the best in the whole continent of Central America.

List of Casinos in Costa Rica

Below is a list of all casinos currently operating in the regions of Costa Rica.

Amon Plaza Clarion Hotel – Central Valley
Barceló Amapola & Jazz Casino
Barceló Playa Langosta Resort & Casino
Barceló Playa Tambor Resort & Casino
Barceló San José Palacio Spa & Casino
Best Western El Sitio Hotel & Casino
Boutique Casino at Tamarindo Diria Beach Resort
Caribbean Village Fiesta Resort & Casino
Casino Costa Rica at Quality Hotel Centro Colón
Casino del Sur
Casino Europa at Radisson Hotel
Casino Tropical at Hotel Costa Rica Morazan
Club Colonial Casino Bar & Restaurant
Coco Beach Hotel & Casino
Concorde Casino at Best Western Irazu
Croc’s Resort & Casino
Crocodile Bay Resort
Crowne Plaza Corobici San Jose Hotel & Casino
Divisamar Hotel & Casino
DoubleTree Cariari San Jose Hotel and Casino
Fiesta Casino Alajuela
Fiesta Casino Holiday Inn Express
Fiesta Casino Heredia
Fiesta Casino Presidente
Fiesta Casino Herradura
Fiesta Casino Yadran
Flamingo Beach Resort, Spa & Casino
Flamingo Marina Resort
Flor De Itabo Hotel & Casino
Grand Casino Escazú at Sheraton Hotel
Horseshoe Casino
Hotel & Casino Del Rey
Hotel Cocal & Casino
Hotel Estela De Fuego
Hotel Layla Resort Casino
Hotel Sierra Resort & Casino
Jazz Casino at Paradisus Playa Conchal Resort
Las Olas Casino at Hotel Riu Guanacaste
Kamuk Casino at Best Western Quepos
Lucky’s Casino Colón
Lucky’s Casino Guapiles
Lucky’s Casino Perez Zeledon
Lucky’s Casino San Carlos
Lucky’s Casino Tournon
Luigi’s Hotel, Restaurant and Casino
Mona Lisa Hotel & Casino
Palma Real Hotel & Casino
Premier Fiesta Resort & Spa
Rio Tranquilo Casino
Riu Guanacaste Hotel and Casino
Royal Dutch Hotel & Casino Europa
Stellaris Casino at Los Suenos Marriott Ocean & Golf Resort
Talamanca Hotel
Taormina Hotel & Casino
White House Hotel Restaurant Casino and Spa

History of Casinos in Costa Rica

The history of gambling, gaming and casinos in Costa Rica is very short — yet overwhelming. Costa Rica gained her independence from Spain on September 15, 1821, after Spain’s ultimate defeat in the Mexican War of Independence.

For some years, the country was still immature and could not move an inch towards her own future. Costa Rica proclaimed sovereignty from a collective Central America in 1838.

Despite Costa Rica’s initial instability, gambling has been generating a lot of revenue and buzz right from the beginning. The United States Senate introduced the Internet Gambling Prohibition Act in 1999. Although it was not passed, the bill brought a great deal of fear to gambling operators around the world. That was when most businessmen decided to move their operations to Costa Rica, mainly because Costa Rica lacked (and still lack) any tangible gambling commission or authoritative body.

When they rushed to the Central American country, they were welcomed by a simple jurisdiction and a lot of potential customers at their fingertips. That was how Costa Rica became a gambling destination, only smaller than Las Vegas.

In 2008, Costa Rica passed a decree to make casinos run from 6 PM and 2 AM, not the initial 24 hours. Also, casinos were required to run their businesses far away from the street, and stop giving customers free alcoholic drinks. Ultimately, they were required to operate in hotels with 59 or lesser rooms.

Current Gambling Climate

Generally, casinos and most forms of gambling facilities and games are legal throughout the length and breadth of Costa Rica. Although Costa Rica lacks any defined gaming or gambling commission or authoritative body, visitors of Costa Rica participate in a wide range of gambling and gaming activities. For residents, however, it is a whole different story.

Some unethical casinos and gambling facilities have taken advantage of this deterioration in the past, and more are expected anytime soon. Most of them pretend to be licensed by an authoritative body known as Costa Rica Gaming Commission, which does not exist in actual fact.

Furthermore, the number of casinos and gambling institutions currently operating in Costa Rica is difficult to perfectly pin down — but with some research, the total number is realized as 53, with the majority in San José, the capital of Costa Rica.

Casinos in Costa Rica by Area

As mentioned earlier, casinos and other gambling institutions are substantially located in the capital state, San José. San José has 168+ table games and 1,136+ gaming machines. However, gambling investors have 53 gambling venues in 26 different Costa Rican cities.

While San José offers 19 different gambling institutions, most other cities offer nothing more than one venue. Additionally, Tamarindo, Sardinal, Quepos, Puntarenas, Playas del Coco, Flamingo Beach, and Escazu all have more than one casino.

Fiesta Casino – Alajuela, located in Alajuela, Río Segundo, is the largest casino in the whole of Costa Rica with various games and machines.

Types of Casinos in Costa Rica

Most gambling activities and facilities are legal in Costa Rica. The most popular facilities include casinos, betting call centres, and gaming parlours. There is a game called Rummy in Costa Rica, which is basically the same as blackjack.

Further, online gambling is legal in Costa Rica but indigenes are forbidden to participate. However, indigenes are not prosecuted for placing wagers on foreign online gambling sites.

Similar to online gambling, poker, sports betting and bingo are legal but illegal for indigenes. Lottery, concurrently, is different and particularly the most popular form of gambling in Costa Rica. Punto Max is a national lottery that operates completely offline. Online lottery shares the same plight with online poker, sports betting, and bingo.

Finally, table games, slot machines and other casino activities are readily available in a typical Costa Rican casino. It is smart to note that most games in Costa Rica have been renamed and with respective twists. For example, Caribbean stud poker and blackjack are almost the same as Tute and Rummy, respectively.

Facts About Casinos in Costa Rica

– The legal gambling age in Costa Rica is 18 years, similar to most countries.

– Costa Rica is one of the few countries to completely lack a gambling or gaming authoritative body or commission. Therefore, there is nothing like a gaming or gambling license or regulation in any part of Costa Rica.

– To get licensed in Costa Rica, gambling operators buy business or data processing licenses. Each license is worth about $5,000, and can be renewed with the same amount yearly.

– The Costa Rican government is very unconcerned about the opening of gambling facilities as long as $5000 is paid for the license and annually. So, opening a gambling facility in Costa Rica is simply easy.

– Costa Rica has a defined tax system for gambling facilities, which states that casinos and gaming parlours must pay 10% of their net profits. Betting call centres, on the other hand, have to pay their tax according to the number of employees.

– Betting call centres with 50 or lesser employees have to pay ¢20.5 million (57 times a basic salary). Betting call centres with 51 to 99 employees have to pay ¢30.6 million (85 times a basic salary). Betting call centres with 100 or more employees have to pay ¢40.6 million (113 times a basic salary).

– In August 2010, Costa Rica declared they were increasing the tax from 10% to 15%. Accordingly, no press release has been released to follow that release.

Legal Gambling Age In Costa Rica Costa Rica

– More than 3,000 employees were put at risk of losing their jobs when Costa Rica regulated casinos to run only from 6 PM to 2 AM. The rule made it illegal to offer gamblers free alcoholic beverages. Also, casinos must stay clear of the street and be absent in hotels with rooms up to 60. That rule became effective in 2008.

– In 2013, the Finance Ministry announced the development of a gaming control board. However, nothing is developed yet in 2017.

– There is a total number of 53 casinos in Costa Rica, with 19 in San José alone.

– Fiesta Casino – Alajuela is the biggest casino in Costa Rica, with 14+ table games and 300+ gaming machines.

– San José is the largest gambling city in Costa Rica, with 19 gambling institutions, 168+ table games and 1,136+ gaming machines.

– About 50% of electronic gambling businesses in the world is between Costa Rica and Aruba, and generates $14+ billion annually.

– Costa Rican indigenes are forbidden to participate in any form of online gambling (sports betting, bingo, poker and lottery).

– Games with a random outcome are forbidden in Costa Rica. As a result, gambling is a very confusing activity in Costa Rica. Some casinos classify blackjack as illegal while some happily offer it.

Is weed legal in Costa Rica?

In 2018, the Costa Rican Supreme Court decriminalized possession and cultivation personal quantities of marijuana. Selling marijuana, as well as large-scale possession and/or cultivation remain crimes punishable by imprisonment. Legalized medical marijuana is pending in the Costa Rican legislature.

[Update on October 9, 2020]

Costa Rica’s official trade promotion agency, PROCOMER, published a study which demonstrates the value of hemp production as a potential agricultural export. While this study doesn’t directly address marijuana legalization, it does represent forward momentum in normalizing the cannabis plant.

[Update January 2, 2020]

There is a bill waiting to be heard by the Costa Rican National Assembly that would legalize production of hemp and cannabis for domestic medical use. [source in Spanish]

Additionally, there is an effort to legalize production for export. Proponents cite a 2017 Deloitte Canada report indicating that approximately 350 million people live in jurisdictions where cannabis legal and may be imported.

One lawmaker, Zoila Rosa Volio Pacheco stated that, “[legal marijuana production for export] would generate work for skilled and unskilled labor,” for the country that is suffering from an economic downturn.

[Update on September 2, 2019]

Costa Rica ranks #6 in Latin America for percentage of the population that identify as a frequent marijuana user.

[Update on May 2, 2019]

Guillermo Araya, the director of the Costa Rican Drug institute (known as ICD for its initials in Spanish) reminded those in Costa Rica that, while simple possession is not punishable, other activities are.

Specifically, Article 58, Law 8204 calls for between 8 and 15 years in jail for anyone that distributes, trades, supplies, manufactures, elaborates, refines, transforms, extracts, prepares, cultivates, produces, transports, stores or sells marijuana. Presumably, he means large-scale cultivation and manufacturing, as the Supreme Court ruling essentially decriminalized personal possession and cultivation.

Mario Alberto Cerdas: Costa Rican Cannabis Pioneer

Pot is technically contraband in Costa Rica, however, thanks to a courageous Costa Rican attorney named Mario Alberto Cerdas, possessing and cultivating cannabis in amounts small enough for only personal consumption is no longer a crime.

Cerdas was charged with cultivating marijuana for growing pot plants on the outdoor terrace of his home, which faced the building that houses Costa Rica’s federal law enforcement agency, the OIJ. He was charged, arrested, and spent five months in preventative detention without bail.

His case made it all the way to the third chamber of the Costa Rican Supreme Court. In January of 2016, the Court absolved Cerdas of the charge of marijuana cultivation. Then, after two years of study, the Court issued a resolution that decreed that growing cannabis for a purpose other than selling it or distributing it, is not a threat to public health. Therefore, it is not a punishable crime.

Medical Marijuana in Costa Rica

There are multiple efforts in the National Assembly, Costa Rica’s legislative body, to establish a medical marijuana program.

One effort would limit eligibility to those suffering from serious conditions such as cancer, epilepsy, MS, and HIV. Eligible conditions could be added based on future scientific studies validated by the Institute for Regulation and Control of Cannabis and Hemp (IICBA).

Under this proposed law, medical cannabis would fall under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Health. Cannabis would be prescribed by a doctor and distributed via pharmacies.

Costa Rica Alchemy is the country’s first medicinal cannabis association.

Is Pot Legal in Costa Rica for Foreigners?

Recreational marijuana is illegal for residents and visitors. However, there is no punishment for possession of a “small dose,” which is usually defined as about one-quarter of an ounce.

Like many of Central America’s tourist hotspots, pot is abundant. In a 2015 University of Costa Rica study, almost 20% of Costa Ricans reported that hey had tried marijuana. The same study reported that 78.1% say that marijuana is very easy to acquire.

The Hookup

We don’t recommend or endorse buying, selling, using, or possessing marijuana in Costa Rica. You could get arrested and end up in a Tico prison for breaking marijuana laws. Don’t do it.

There are five places that a visitor can most easily score weed, and as such, we recommend avoiding these kinds of places in order to not break the law:

• At the beach

• In parks

• Clubs and bars

• Taxi

• AirBnB

Weed on the Beach

Weed is especially easy to find in the more popular beach areas.

In the Caribbean beach towns like Puerto Viejo and Cahuita, a person can literally follow the smell of pot.

The eastern coast of Costa Rica has an Afro-Caribbean vibe. In fact, Cauhita has been called Costa Rica’s Little Jamaica. Rastafarian influence on the town is obvious.

If you can’t find weed in Puerto Viejo or Cauhita then you are stupid.

Speaking of Puerto Viejo and Cahuita, one of our Costa Rica insiders, Marie Gomez, wrote a guide to these towns, outlining great places to eat, drink and enjoy fun activities.

On the Pacific side, surfers and vendors on the beach can usually give you some advice on where to go to score weed.

Weed in the Park

Not all of Costa Rica is the beach. If you find yourself landlocked, a local park is usually where nefarious pot dealers hang out. We don’t ever recommend going to a park late at night. They can be dangerous in the wee hours.

Most towns and communities are built around a church and an adjacent park. There is usually at least one person in the park that is selling.

Weed in Clubs and Bars

Dance clubs and bars are often frequented by marijuana users and people that sell it.

In beach towns, the Rastafarian-themed bars are often full of marijuana activity.

Weed in a Taxi

In the Central Valley, taxi drivers sometimes can steer you toward places that where there is (not) marijuana.

Always look for the official red taxis with yellow triangles displaying their license number.

AirBnB Weed

Phrases like “420 friendly” on AirBnB indicate that the host is marijuana-friendly.

Should I Bring it With Me

Under no circumstance.

If you are caught, the best case scenario is that you are denied entry to the country and sent home. That is what happened to a professional American football player from the United States.

Legal Gambling Age In Costa Rica

The worst case scenario is that you spend years in a Costa Rican prison. Have a beer instead.

Chifrijo, a popular bar food made of pork belly, beans, rice, salsa and/or chimichurri, is a local go-to to treat the munchies.