Monaco: gambling regulation and licensing
- Land-based (reference)Monopoly
- Online casinoGrey market
- Online sports bettingGrey market
- Regulator
- Service de Contrôle des Jeux
- Headline tax
- Not yet verified
- Licence required
- Not yet verified
- Last verified
- 30 Aug 2026
Summary
Monaco is one of the most misread jurisdictions in Europe, because the casino everyone has heard of tells you almost nothing about how the Principality regulates gambling. The operative statute is Loi n° 1.103 of 12 June 1987 on games of chance, supplemented by Ordonnance souveraine n° 8.929 of 1987 and Arrêté ministériel n° 88-384 of 1988. Supervision sits with the Service de Contrôle des Jeux, a service of the Département des Finances et de l’Économie rather than an independent gambling commission, and the administrative authorisations the law requires are issued by the Minister of State. That structure matters. Monaco does not operate a licensing regime in the sense an operator would recognise. There is no published application window, no licence register to consult and no schedule of fees; permission is an act of government, granted in a market sized for a single concessionaire. The law's authorisation principle has been extended to games of chance operated online, which is frequently reported as Monaco having legalised online gambling. It has not created a route to a licence. The practical position for an international operator is that Monaco is not a market to enter and not a jurisdiction to license from. It is a small domestic market with a state-adjacent incumbent, and the reason to understand it is that its rules are cited far more often than they are read.
Common pitfalls
Three recurring errors. First, that Monaco is an offshore licensing jurisdiction: it is not, and no operator holds a Monegasque licence for international supply. Second, that online gambling is simply illegal: the authorisation principle in Law 1.103 has been extended to online games of chance, but no public licensing route exists, which is a different thing. Third, that the Service de Contrôle des Jeux is an independent regulator: it is a service of the finance department, and the authorisations themselves are issued by the Minister of State.
Key facts
- Regulator
- Service de Contrôle des Jeux (SCJ)
- Regulator type
- Government ministry
- Headline tax
- Not yet verified
- Licence required
- Not yet verified
- Minimum age
- Not yet verified
- Tax base
- Not yet verified
Legal framework
Primary statutes
Loi n° 1.103 du 12 juin 1987 relative aux jeux de hasard
- Year
- 1987
- In force
- Yes
- Summary
- Cited as Loi n° 1.103.
Secondary instruments
Ordonnance souveraine n° 8.929 du 15 juillet 1987
- Year
- 1987
- In force
- Yes
- Summary
- Cited as OS n° 8.929.
Arrêté ministériel n° 88-384 du 26 juillet 1988 portant réglementation des jeux de hasard
- Year
- 1988
- In force
- Yes
- Summary
- Cited as AM n° 88-384.
Advertising
- Advertising permitted
- Not yet verified
- Penalties for breach
- The Service de Controle des Jeux supervises gambling in the Principality. No separate advertising code has been verified.
Restrictions
- Games of chance are governed by Loi n. 1.103 of 12 June 1987, supervised by the Service de Controle des Jeux within the Departement des Finances et de l Economie rather than by an independent gambling commission.
- The land-based casino operates as a monopoly, so there is no competitive field of licensed operators to advertise.
- Monegasque nationals are barred from gambling in the Principality casinos, which makes residents a prohibited audience rather than merely a protected one.
- Online casino and online sports betting are recorded as grey: there is no licensing route, and no verified prohibition on the promotion of offshore offers.
Timeline
12 Jun 1987
Loi n° 1.103 on games of chance adopted, establishing the administrative authorisation regime and the gaming control service.
Outlook
No public consultation on an online licensing framework has been announced. The question to watch is whether the authorisation principle already in Law 1.103 is ever operationalised into an application route, which would be the first genuine change in the Monegasque regime in decades.
Sources
- Tier 1Accessed 29 Aug 2026Published 12 Jun 1987
- Tier 1Accessed 29 Aug 2026Published 15 Jul 1987
- Tier 1Accessed 29 Aug 2026Published 26 Jul 1988
- Service de Contrôle des Jeux, Département des Finances et de l’Économie
Gouvernement Princier de Monaco
Tier 1Accessed 29 Aug 2026