COSTA RICA MAKES A BET ON GAMBLING LEGISLATION

UNCLAS SAN JOSE 000531 SENSITIVE SIPDIS DEPT FOR WHA/CEN, WHA/EPSC:AWONG, AND EEB/ESC/TFS TREASURY FOR LMCDONALD, CCORREA, CGAMBLE AND SSENICH E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: ECON EFIN EINV PGOV PREL CS SUBJECT: COSTA RICA MAKES A BET ON GAMBLING LEGISLATION REF: San Jose 0277 (NOTAL) ¶1. (SBU) SUMMARY. June 8-12, Rick Hector and Charles Klingman of Treasury's Office of Technical Assistance (OTA) advised Costa Rican Finance (Hacienda) Minister Guillermo Zuniga and Vice Minister Jenny Phillips on the pros and cons of legislating and regulating the gaming industry. Their week of meetings and close consultations followed requests made by Zuniga to Treasury Deputy Assistant Secretary Larry McDonald in two previous meetings, and an offer made in March by a visiting OTA financial enforcement assessment team. Hacienda has concluded that it wants to create a tight legislative and regulatory regime to control (and tax) gaming, including internet activity and brick-and- mortar casinos. The tax revenue potential and the opportunity to restrict money laundering are especially attractive to the GOCR. However, passing the required legislation in the last 10 months of the Arias administration will require substantial political will, and may prove impossible. We will support Hacienda in its quest and advocate for OTA financial enforcement funding. The GOCR will need technical (and a little political) assistance to help create and complete legislation before the next administration takes office in May 2010. END SUMMARY. -------------- HIGH LEVEL ATTENTION FROM THE HACIENDA -------------- ¶2. (U) The OTA ad hoc trip to Costa Rica responded to a request by Minister Zuniga for specific, near-term assistance on gaming regulatory and taxation issues. Also, the trip was the fulfillment of an offer to the GOCR made by an OTA assessment team in March (reftel). As an indication of the Minister's priority for gaming regulation, Zuniga spent three hours with the OTA team on the first day of their visit, then reported directly to President Arias on the key points from the session. -------------- THE CONUNDRUM OF U.S. LAW -------------- ¶3. (U) Existing USG law permits AmCits to gamble over the internet but does not permit the offer of gambling services to AmCits. Between 80-90 countries currently offer online gambling services, including Costa Rica. Restrictions for blocking AmCit access to gaming services are not enforced by country, but by individual companies -- though rarely -- in order to avoid possible U.S. prosecution. The OTA team explained the general tendency of the USG is to tolerate one of two enforcement regimes: tight legislative and regulatory restrictions on gaming and looser restrictions in other areas of economic crimes, or (2) loose legislative and regulatory restrictions on gaming and tight restrictions in other areas of economic crimes. Costa Rica is loose on both accounts; hence, Costa Rica needs to address one or the other side of the financial crimes scale. -------------- EXISTING DRAFT BILL: NO GO -------------- ¶4. (U) Advisors Hector and Klingman evaluated an existing bill -- drafted principally by the Hacienda and national legislator Andrea Morales (IND),whose work in the internet gambling sector before running for office has given her a special interest in the issue. The OTA team concluded that the draft bill failed to address key gaming issues such as requiring the deposit of company funds in on-shore banking accounts. As Advisor Hector shared, "Without the records (accounts) in Costa Rica, you (the GOCR) have no basis on which to tax." In short, the bill was unusable. Whatever form a new law will take, it will update the current law which went into effect in 1921, long before the dawn of e-commerce. -------------- NEW DRAFT BILL: OTHER MODELS? -------------- ¶5. (U) Industry experts estimate annual worldwide internet gaming revenues at USD 14 billion. A significant proportion of the business operates in Antigua and Costa Rica, though there are no hard facts on country share. Antigua adopted and enforces a strict legislative and regulatory code. The OTA team cited Antigua's code as a worthy model and recommended the Antigua approach (assuming a tight legal and regulatory regime was the policy option chosen by the GOCR). -------------- THE HACIENDA TIPS ITS HAND -------------- ¶6. (U) The OTA Advisors outlined various policy approaches for the GOCR regarding the "tightness" or "looseness" of the regulatory environment and resulting implications. Just as important, the advisors were exceedingly clear on how to approach a legal and regulatory regime: there is no partial or mid-point remedy: either approach gaming in a comprehensive manner, or don't bother. After several days of meetings, the Hacienda stated its desire to proceed, post haste, with drafting new legislation with supporting regulations. OTA also argued that gaming legislation should not be restricted to internet activity but should include brick-and-mortar casinos -- which are plentiful in Costa Rica. At the conclusion of the out-brief with Hacienda, both the Minister and the Vice Minister eagerly expressed their desire to start drafting -- using Antigua as a model -- and to solicit additional guidance from OTA gaming experts. -------------- COMMENT -------------- ¶7. (SBU) A driving factor behind the Hacienda's interest in gaming relates directly to tax revenues. As previously reported (reftel), the GOCR does not regulate or tax the gaming industry. The potential for money laundering thus abounds, particularly in an environment of growing criminality and narco-trafficking. The prospective government "take" of gaming revenue in the form of taxation, and establishing regulations to dampen or reduce the growing potential of illicit cash transfers appeals to the GOCR. Furthermore, with GDP contraction of 1.8 percent forecasted for 2009, due to the global financial crisis, and a related tax revenue shortfall projection of USD 940 million, the GOCR is looking for new sources of revenue. ¶8. (SBU) The Arias Administration will need to muster its political allies to pass the desired legislation in the remaining months of its term, which ends April 30, 2010. Legislator Morales' draft bill, which may be discussed in committee beginning the week of June 22, will require extensive revision, if not wholesale replacement with something new. The GOCR can control the legislative agenda for the month of August and from December-April. However, the national election in February 2010 will certainly disrupt the GOCR's focus during the latter period. Pushing such legislation forward will take political will, skill and discipline, commodities in especially short supply during the highly-politicized waning months of a Costa Rican administration. ¶9. (SBU) The potential bright spot was the selection this month of former VP (and Justice Minister) Laura Chinchilla as the PLN party's presidential candidate. If she wins the February election, there may be a post-election, pre-transition PLN push, with sufficient political support, to complete a more ambitious legislative agenda, including a workable gaming regulation bill, in order to help launch her administration. ¶10. (SBU) We envision ongoing USG counsel on gaming regulation as a key element of a formal OTA financial enforcement program for Costa Rica. This can provide the right guidance on a complex topic -- internet and casino gambling -- and directly benefit efforts to investigate and prosecute money laundering and to organize financial and law enforcement agencies to combat financial crimes. Improved financial enforcement by Costa Rica directly supports Mission Strategic Plan objectives. BRENNAN