Trinidad and Tobago approves remote gambling order, with licensing promised by 1 January 2027

Trinidad and Tobago has legalised online gambling on paper, but no one can be licensed yet. On 2 October 2026 the Senate unanimously approved the Gambling (Gaming and Betting) (Remote Gambling) Order, 2026, after the House of Representatives passed it on 30 September. The government has promised the missing licensing machinery by 1 January 2027.

What the order does

The order is short. The Minister of Finance made it on 15 September 2026 under section 76 of the Gambling (Gaming and Betting) Control Act, 2021, the section that made it an offence to use Trinidad and Tobago as a base for remote gambling. The order sets that offence aside for one group: a person holding "a valid remote gambling licence issued by the Commission under section 30(2)(l) of the Act" may engage in remote gambling, subject to the Act, its regulations and the licence terms.

Finance Minister Davendranath Tancoo told the House the old rule stopped firms based in the country from serving customers abroad, with penalties up to 10 years' imprisonment, iGaming.News reported. The order is meant to let the country license operators for both local and international players.

Why nothing opens yet

The order only works for licence holders, and there are none. In the Senate, Opposition Senator Faris Al-Rawi pointed out that Part Three of the 2021 Act, which sets up the licensing regime, has not been proclaimed. He called the question of when licences would actually be issued "the crux of it all".

Attorney General John Jeremie answered with an undertaking that the provisions needed to make online gambling fully operational would be proclaimed "on or before January 1, 2027". Before then, the Gambling Control Commission (set up in 2022) is to work with the Central Bank on the operating framework, including digital payments and licensing for electronic money issuers. No licence fees, tax rates, application window or operator names have been published.

So until a remote licence is actually issued, no website can claim to be licensed in Trinidad and Tobago. Any site saying so before then is worth treating with suspicion.

Player protection is still a to-do list

Independent Senator Dr Desiree Murray used the debate to ask for age and identity checks, deposit and spending limits, self-exclusion, cooling-off periods and systems to spot harmful play. Planning Minister Dr Kennedy Swaratsingh, who moved the motion, said the Commission would address several of those points. None is written into the order itself, so how strong the eventual rules are will depend on the regulations still to come.

For scale, iGaming.News reports the existing gambling sector, which is land-based and club gaming, brought in about TTD72.66m (US$10.74m) in tax in 2025. The vote in the House was 33-0, according to CasinoReviews.net.

18+. If gambling stops being fun, see responsible play. For more Caribbean licensing news, see the Curaçao regulator's portal incident and Curaçao's crypto policy.