The iGaming industry is entering one of its most regulated and competitive periods to date. Despite tightening gambling regulations worldwide, the iGaming market continues to...
iGaming in Venezuela 2026: Inside LATAM’s Growing Market
What makes iGaming Venezuela such a hot market in 2026? How can iGaming businesses enter the market and succeed? AffPapa breaks down the biggest trends, player behavior, opportunities, and risks for anyone entering iGaming in Venezuela, explaining how it became one of LATAM’s fastest-growing online gambling markets.
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iGaming in Venezuela today
The online gambling market in Venezuela experienced rapid expansion, largely as a result of economic challenges, including high inflation, international sanctions and the shutdown of most land-based casinos. Players switched to online platforms because they had limited offline choices, and stayed with that choice ever since. iGaming activity between January 2024 and January 2025 experienced nearly 95% yearly growth according to the Blask Index, which tracked 15 million to 29 million engagement points, putting iGaming Venezuela among the fastest-growing markets in the iGaming LatAm region.
The market scale is substantial, with 3.6 million active players representing 26% of the adult population engaging in online gambling in Venezuela. Meanwhile, the leading operators demonstrate significant earning potential with average competitive baselines around $43 million and peaks near $109 million.
What’s impressive is that the demand for online casinos and betting platforms in Venezuela remains steady, with activity levels having only declined temporarily when the United States conducted operations in Caracas during the first half of 2026. At the same time, global prediction markets turned their attention to Venezuela after an anonymous trader turned a roughly $32,000 wager into more than $400,000 by betting on Maduro’s removal just hours before a U.S. operation reportedly captured him. This raised questions in the U.S. about insider trading on prediction markets.
Gambling in Venezuela: legal insights
Basically, the gambling market in Venezuela is split in two. Land-based casinos and lotteries are tightly regulated; Online gambling in Venezuela, however, allows players to play and operators/affiliates to make money, but everyone has to navigate a system that’s still figuring itself out.
Land‑based gambling in Venezuela
In Venezuela, land-based gambling is regulated under Law No. 36.254, established in 1997 and covering casinos, bingo halls, slots, lotteries, and horse racing. The CNC is the primary regulatory body, ensuring that operators comply with laws and tax obligations, while also meeting operational standards such as anti-money laundering practices. The online casino licensing process in Venezuela requires operators to establish their presence in designated locations, which include five-star hotels and tourist areas, and operators are closely audited. Taxes are high, 34% on player winnings and 16% on lotteries or horse racing.
iGaming Venezuela’s gray‑market environment
Online gambling Venezuela is a completely different story. There’s no clear law covering digital betting, and sports betting is actually banned domestically. However, that doesn’t stop Venezuelans from playing online: most go straight to offshore sites, where they have no local legal protection. The CNC doesn’t really touch these platforms, which means operators are in a gray area. If you want to operate online from Venezuela, you’ll likely take on legal uncertainty, which comes with possible site blocks, headaches of payment volatility as well as high taxes.
Top online casino brands in Venezuela
The Venezuelan player base shows three main characteristics: frequent participation, consistent presence, and mobile-first preferences. Given that daily engagement with short but regular sessions is common, an average player spends between $100 and $500 per month. Local player preferences include crypto payments, live dealer tables, soccer betting, and old-school options like lotteries, bingo, and horse racing that are on-trend to this day.
The iGaming Venezuela market is already highly competitive in 2026, with around 130 online casino brands operating locally. Certain brands, however, currently dominate the market:
- Triunfo Bet leads the market with the largest share of active players.
- Apuestas Royal and JuegaEnLínea come next as strong local contenders.
These 3 brands generate about 85% of all betting activity.
- Smaller brands like Cordialito and PaRLey fit into more niche spaces.
- Offshore operators, Betfair, Bet365, 1xBet, and Betwinner, are widely used for sports and crypto-friendly casino play.
Many of the casino operators use crypto partnerships together with affiliate networks and hybrid hotel-casino systems to grow their reach and keep adapting to player preferences.
Online gambling in Venezuela: popular games and betting options
iGaming in Venezuela has a few gambling options that dominate how people play:
- Sports Betting: Particularly for soccer and baseball, mostly through offshore platforms.
- Online Casinos: Slots, roulette, blackjack, and localized progressive jackpots.
- Lotteries & Horse Racing: Long-standing favorites that moved online.
- Poker & Other Games: This smaller segment is growing and adding variety to the market.
Where are Venezuelans playing now?
Not so long ago, most gambling in Venezuela happened in physical casinos or bingo halls. Today, that’s barely the case. Many venues closed or scaled back because of economic struggles and tighter regulations, and players had to find other options to keep the game going.
That “plan B” turned out to be online, and mostly via mobile. Around 90% of iGaming activity now happens on smartphones, and it’s not hard to see why: Mobile play is quite accessible, essentially making smartphones the new casino floor for millions of Venezuelans.
iGaming Venezuela in 2026: opportunities and risks
iGaming in Venezuela is a market full of potential for expansion. On a large scale, operators entering the Venezuela iGaming market have to pay attention to trends, adapt quickly, and stay flexible to capture a larger share of the market, which is still growing despite economic and political challenges. As for affiliates, success in Venezuela follows many of the same patterns seen in iGaming affiliate marketing in LATAM.
On a more practical note, however, if you’re looking to enter the online gambling market in Venezuela, focus on:
- Offering content in Spanish and supporting BTC/USDT payments.
- Using data-driven marketing and analytics to reach players.
- Expanding into slots, instant games, and sports betting.
- Running localized promotions, VIP programs, and rewards.
- Improving withdrawals and mobile usability.
The risks, however, are still very much a thing. Operators have to deal with:
- A gray-market environment that causes legal uncertainty
- High taxes (34% on player winnings and 16% on lotteries and horse racing).
- AML and compliance requirements that create operational complexity.
- Competition among dominant brands that capture most of the market.
Looking at the bigger picture, many of the challenges and growth patterns we see in online gambling Venezuela are similar to what’s happening in other big LatAm markets, which makes iGaming in Brazil a useful point of reference (keeping the differences in mind, of course).
The situation of iGaming in Venezuela in 2026 mirrors the contradictions in the country, with fast digital growth and ongoing uncertainty. The Venezuela iGaming market presents substantial opportunities for businesses whose strategy revolves around understanding the local players and respecting the changing regulatory environment.
For affiliates and operators ready to connect with the right partners to grow with, registering on AffPapa’s ultimate iGaming directory can be a helpful first step as you build and scale in the region.
iGaming Venezuela: FAQs
Is online gambling in Venezuela legal in 2026?
Online gambling in Venezuela operates in a gray-market environment. Land-based casinos and lotteries are strictly regulated, but there is no clear legal framework that specifically regulates online casinos or offshore sports betting platforms. Nevertheless, Venezuelan players actively use international platforms.
Is iGaming popular in Venezuela?
iGaming in Venezuela keeps growing in popularity, mostly because of the closure of many land-based casinos. With limited offline options, players moved online. Combined with high smartphone usage and crypto adoption, this has made Venezuela one of LATAM’s fastest-growing iGaming markets.
What payment methods do online casino players in Venezuela prefer?
Most players in Venezuela prefer crypto payments. Bitcoin (BTC) and stablecoins like USDT are the most popular options due to payment reliability, speed, and protection from local currency volatility. Traditional banking methods are less common because of restrictions and instability.
What online casino games are most popular in Venezuela?
The most popular online casino games in Venezuela include online slots, live dealer casino games, sports betting (mainly soccer via offshore sites), lotteries, bingo, and horse racing. Mobile-friendly games with localized themes perform especially well.
With founding members from Mexico, Colombia, Paraguay, Peru, El Salvador, and the Dominican Republic, a new regulatory body was formed in LatAm to unite the gambling industry...
