Will Costa Rica relaunch the legal sports betting market?
Since the outbreak of Covid-19 pandemic, more than 600 confirmed cases have occurred in Costa Rica and 3 people have died. In order to prevent the virus from continuing to spread, the country ’s football league was also forced to suspend, the country losing an important source of revenue. To make up for the economic losses in the country, Costa Rican lawmakers proposed to resume legal sports betting to prevent further economic losses. It is understood that the idea of relaunch the regulated sports betting market began to be circulated in early April 2020.
In fact, Costa Rica has legalized domestic sports betting in the past, but due to lack of citizen interest, it closed the market in 1998. Nonetheless, this has not prevented the country from becoming a paradise for offshore sports gambling. Unfortunately, for the Costa Rica government, they did not receive any revenue from this. According to local media reports, soccer may become the savior of the country’s economy. Fernando Ocampo, the chairman of the country’s well-known Alajuela Soccer Club, pointed out to the media that it is time to use creativity and thinking proposals to create resources for soccer and other projects. Soccer can help the National Olympic Committee and other sports to increase revenue.
He added that the idea of reintroducing sports betting is just getting started. It may take several weeks to develop a complete plan. The experience of the past failure cannot guarantee a better response to relaunch the sport betting market, and it is difficult to predict how much revenue will actually be generated. In view of the fact that most citizens lack disposable income, this fact is clear. Even so, this idea may be supported. Ocampo is not the only one who believes that sports betting can help economic reconstruction. Before the Covid-19 pandemic swept through Central America, the country ’s Social Services Commission (Junta deProteccionSocial) had begun to seek legal sports betting as a viable source of revenue and a way to eliminate black market betting.
The organization’s chief executive, Esmerald Britton, said in the past that the country was not yet ready for sports betting, but today the situation is different, and there are more practical cases of developing sports betting in countries around the world. They are maintaining close ties with other countries that have opened up the sports betting market, including: Colombia or Argentina. They are analyzing the pros and cons of these markets to avoid repeating them and finding the most profitable model for Costa Rica. Legalizing sports betting in Costa Rica may be a successful attempt and contribute to the reconstruction of the country’s economy. However, even if there was a legal framework in the past, reintroducing a new legal system is not a simple process, which may take months (or even longer). Costa Rica sports betting
