Papua New Guinea Gambles On The Online Gambling Industry

22 May 2025

Most chances are that many of the online casino players have never heard before of Papua New Guinea, but that situation may change pretty soon. This little country, officially named the Independent State of Papua New Guinea, is located in Oceania, occupying eastern half of the island of New Guinea and numerous offshore islands. Those facts probably wouldn't interest anyone at the online casino industry, but the fact that this country may be become the next global online gambling licensing jurisdiction is more than interesting. According to the Australian and New Zealand media, the local parliament has passed last week a gaming law allowing casinos and internet gambling in the Pacific nation.

Although churches and women's groups in Papua New Guinea are likely to protest this move, the Gaming Control Bill 2025, introduced by Prime Minister Michael Somare, impressively passed 61-0 in the last session of parliament before the general election in June. Under this new law, online casino operators will be required to pay a duty of 20 percent of gross profit and a community benefit gaming levy of 5 percent of gross profit. The big question is if despite these heavy costs this jurisdiction will still become popular among casino operators.

Although Prime Minister Somare recently said that he sees this as an opportunity for his country to earn from the taxes imposed at online casino operators, analysts predict that that's not the only reason for passing the law. According to them, the new law paves the way for a Korean consortium to build a multi million dollar five-star hotel and casino in Port Moresby, a project already approved by the cabinet, and which could certainly give a boost to this nice little country.

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