Is online gambling legal in Barbados?

Legal overview

Barbados has no specific law on online gambling and no system for licensing online casinos. The main statute for the sector is the Betting and Gaming Duties Act, Cap. 60, enacted in 1977 and amended by Act No. 16 of 2010. Administered for tax purposes by the Barbados Revenue Authority, it sets duties and fees for lotteries, casinos and betting operations, while licensing, enforcement and penalties are detailed in the Betting and Gaming Duties Regulations of 1979. The Act and its regulations predate the internet and do not deal with online, remote or interactive gambling.

Gambling policy has been discussed in several budgets. In the 2019 budget debate, the opposition pointed to a proposed 20% withholding tax on gambling winnings and a 17.5% tax on the net drop of gaming establishments and asked whether casino gambling was being introduced; whether these measures were implemented could not be confirmed. In March 2023 the Minister in the Ministry of Finance, Ryan Straughn, announced that a new betting and gaming framework was being prepared because of the growth of online gaming, and said the government was working with the telecommunications industry on a monitoring system.

No legislation implementing that framework was identified as enacted by October 2026. As a result, online casino play by residents is neither expressly licensed nor expressly prohibited, no local authority supervises offshore sites, and no blocking or payment measures against them were found. Players who use foreign sites have no Barbadian regulator to turn to and must rely on the operator and its foreign licensing authority in any dispute.

Verification status: this overview is based on secondary sources and has not yet been checked against the official law text or the regulator. Confirm the details with the national authority before relying on them.