El Salvador Gaming License

The application flows through the LNB’s Compliance and Inspection Unit (Unidad de Cumplimiento y Fiscalización), which issues the form and document list, reviews the file, and reports to the board. Five steps, in order.

1. First, request the application form from the compliance unit, which replies with the form and the current document list.
2. Second, prepare documents under Regulation Arts. 11-13: certified articles of incorporation showing gambling as the company’s primary purpose, disclosure of any capital or professional ties to other LNB-authorized operators or their people, a plan de juegos describing each game type’s structure and parameters, and anything else the LNB needs to verify legal, technical, economic, and financial solvency. Note the August 2023 amendment, so document lists in older secondary sources may be outdated.
3. Third, submit the file for review against Arts. 11-13 and the procedures in Arts. 63+ of the organic law.
4. Fourth, the unit reports to the board, which approves, denies, or conditions the application.
5. Fifth, pay the canon, the management fee, after approval: without payment, no game operates under the law.

Estimate two to three months from submission to decision where the file is complete. Incomplete files stall at review, not at the board.

Stated in the legislation: gambling as the primary corporate purpose, disclosure of operator relationships, a annually renewable surety bond (fianza), an annual canon, non-transferable licenses that cannot be leased or assigned, validity up to 10 years, and eligibility disqualifications for certain persons.

Reported by secondary sources but not verified against legislation: capital around USD 2,000 for LLCs and USD 10,000 for corporations, 30% corporate income tax with possible foreign-source exemptions, 13% VAT plus municipal taxes, and a case-by-case bond amount set by the LNB. Where these figures drive the business plan, confirm them with the LNB or local counsel before committing funds. This verified-first split is deliberate: most pages in this niche present secondary figures as law, and founders who budget on them inherit the error.