In San Jose, the main poker rooms are Del Rey, which has two tables and bi-monthly tournaments Irazu, with four tables Sheraton, with four tables and monthly freeroll tournaments Taormina, again with four tables but with weekly tournaments. The rooms in San Jose tend to move fast, however, so visitors will do well to make sure they are prepared for the competitive environment through practicing various poker games before their visit.

You’re unlikely to find anything at the standard of WSOP 2019, but the various games still tend to be lively and able players can do well. It used to be a little like the wild west in terms of the games played there, with fast and loose play sometimes resulting in some big wins off relatively small games, but the scene has settled down a little now. It covered both casinos and betting call centers in Costa Rica and stipulated that only hotels rated at four stars or above are able to house casinos.Ī lot of the poker action is centered on the capital of Costa Rica, San Jose. The legal framework was shaken up, however, with revised regulations – the so-called ‘Law on Casino Taxation’ introduced in 2008. This legal set up is the reason that the majority of Costa Rican gaming facilities are based around the most well-known beaches, with the remainder established in the country’s capital, San Jose. Originally the laws around casinos and gaming were all designed with tourism in mind, with hotels permitted to host casinos and the number of slots and tables allowed dependant on the number of stars a hotel carried (the majority have around 50 and 100 slot machines and roughly six table games). By 1999 there were 21 casinos in the country and by 2006 that figure had more than doubled to 46, which is roughly where the number sits today. In Costa Rica the regulation of casinos and gaming stretches back to 1922, with the last major overhaul taking place in 1997, so this is a country with an established tradition of gambling. Costa Rica’s gambling laws and regulations

Taormina Casino and Hotel poker room