costa rica web hosting license?

[s_kroll]

Hi guys,

Been looking around to find an appropriate place to put a skill games website up and have chosen either between Malta or Costa Rica. My downfall is though that I have absolutely no idea who is able to help get a data processing license for Costa Rica or the cost in which to do so. Is anyone able to help?

Stephen

[NicolasJohnson]

Hi guys,

Been looking around to find an appropriate place to put a skill games website up and have chosen either between Malta or Costa Rica. My downfall is though that I have absolutely no idea who is able to help get a data processing license for Costa Rica or the cost in which to do so. Is anyone able to help?

Stephen

Hi Stephen,

As far as I'm concerned there is no data processing license in Costa Rica. Neither is there a gambling license. There is only a normal business license (a corporation). Many scamsters try to sell a gambling license to unwitting investors for as much as $10k which turn out to be a normal business license (read corporation).

A corporation here, also known as a Sociedad Anonima S.A. (which translates to anonymous society, even though they aren't that anonymous) can cost as low as $200 and as much as $3,000 depending on the lawyer you get. If you need a good lawyer down here, I can refer you to the guy who has been serving my family down here for the last 25 years (and he charges very cheap).

Kind Regards,
Nicolas Johnson
Regal Affiliates Manager

[s_kroll]

So what you are saying is that I dont need a data processing license and I also dont need a gambling license (not that there was one). So what do I need in order not to get my website shut down? (the website is for chinese skill games in a gambling fashion). Also nicholas, I'd love to get the details for the lawyer you use. He seems cheap enough and if he is as good as you say he is, I will check it out.

Stephen

[James_W]

May I suggest HostaRica as this is where most gambling companies host their site.

[casinojack]

May I suggest HostaRica as this is where most gambling companies host their site.

Second this....They a great place to start, also some good call centers here if you need customer service out sourced, etc to get going...

For Credit Card processing, Pm me for a solution, but they are a company also here in Costa Rica...

[costaricalawyer]

Hello
There is no Casino License in Costa Rica. You would apply for a data processing license.
The Costa Rica have talked about regulating the industry but no plans to move forward as of now.
I have helped several companies start gaming companies in Costa Rica.

Lic Giovanna Barrantes
Barrantes & Associates
Office 011 506 2 256 3807
Direct 011 506 8 398 1203
Edificio Casa Canada Paseo Colon Subway
Anexo Uno 100 metros sur/50 metros oeste
Skype CostaRicaLaw1

[jetset]

This thread is over a year old, but the latest poster is correct...the Costa Rica government has been talking about a proper licensing and regulatory regime for years, but it never seems to get off the ground.

Last I heard the recently elected (as in April -May last year. I think) president, Laura Chinchilla, was making moves to do something positive about real internet gambling regulation, if only to raise more tax revenues...but nothing seems to have materialised.

[jstrike]

I just went through this (got our SA set up). There aren't a lot of clubs still active in Costa Rica, other than sportsbooks trying to dodge US law, which we aren't. If you've got decent startup capital, it makes a lot of sense at this point to incorporate in a more expensive and more regulated jurisdiction, if for no other reason than that players will trust it more. In our case, we're under-capitalized, and this was the only way to get up and running at all. It's basically the only place left in the world that doesn't make you pay the government for a license before you're making money.

On the other hand, there are some hidden costs to launching from CR that don't make themselves apparent until you've got your SA and are trying to set up your site. CR is pretty far behind right now in terms of bandwidth and infrastructure. I don't recommend HostaRica. I think a couple years ago they might have been okay but it looks like they scaled back a lot since then. We found a host that's pretty well on the level and the prices are comparable for the scene, but we're still talking about paying 4x what we'd pay for the same servers in Europe or the US...not to mention any extra bandwidth is just out of control expensive. To start with at least 3 servers like we need, that means we're paying at least $1200 a month for equipment that's already got some dust on it. That's the real hidden cost to doing business in CR -- if we had enough for two years of that hosting up front, without wrecking our startup fund, we could have applied for a temporary license in the Isle of Man and skipped this step. We'd buy the equipment and co-locate it, but that means carrying insurance on it which means we're paying rent anyway, and the cost of getting it in and out of there is enough to neutralize the savings.

To people who want to do business down there, the only thing I can tell you is get a good lawyer in your home country first and let them find a good lawyer there by referral from their firm. Go through old fashioned channels and don't believe a single thing you read on the internet, about anything. When you want hosting, look at where the IP addresses resolve for the companies that are hosting there now, and figure out how to contact those people (not HostaRica). Be paranoid in your security, partition your drives with encrypted volumes and assume that people with physical access will try to use it. Hire specialists to mitigate this risk. It can be done on a roll, but if you've got the dime to go to the Manx or the Maltese up front, you'll save a big headache (plus, you're much more likely to be whitelisted by the CM... which we can only dream about).

[By the way. Giovanna who made that last post, is on our angel list. If you need a CR lawyer, she's excellent. Bur don't take it from me, have your lawyers do the research for you.]