Official language: Spanish
Population: 4,133,884
Currency: Costa Rican Colon (CRC)

Current Exchange Rate
1 EUR = 838.0843 CRC
1 GBP = 927.6908 CRC
1 USD = 566.7710 CRC

Poker in Costa Rica
Costa Rica is quickly becoming a popular destination for poker players. The country has more than 30 large casinos plus many other smaller gambling halls where poker games can be played. The government has only recently started tightening up the country's gambling laws, so there are still lots of places that offer table games. A number of large, international tournaments pass through the country every year. For example, the World Poker Showdown (WPS) held a major event at the Jazz Casino in Jaco Beach in November 2008. This 10-day, $2500 buy-in tournament was one of the biggest poker events in Costa Rica so far.

Online Poker in Costa Rica
Online poker in Costa Rica is also enjoyed by locals. Interestingly, while the Costa Rican government gives out licenses that let companies offer online gambling services from locally hosted websites, they do not allow such websites to cater to Costa Rican players. This means that anyone living in Costa Rica who wants to play online poker cannot use any of the hundreds of poker websites actually hosted there. Instead, players just use foreign-hosted online poker sites. There are many around the world that will accept Costa Rican players, and let them enjoy real-money poker games on the internet.