Saudi Arabia prohibits gambling in every form and has no gambling regulator, no gambling licence, no lottery and no casinos. The prohibition rests on Sharia rather than a penal code. Under the Basic Law of Governance the Quran and Sunnah are the constitution, a crime may be defined by a Sharia text as well as a statute, and the courts apply Sharia, so gambling is punished as a discretionary (ta'zir) offence with no fixed tariff. The 2018 FATF-MENAFATF evaluation records that gambling is illegal and contrary to Sharia and that there are no casinos. Two statutes deal with gambling in terms. The Civil Transactions Law of 2023 makes every agreement on gambling void, while allowing prize competitions that turn on the competitors' effort. The Anti-Cyber Crime Law of 2007, Article 6, punishes preparing, publishing or promoting material for gambling activities through an information network with up to five years' imprisonment and a fine of up to SAR 3 million, and the proceeds of gambling are proceeds of crime under the Anti-Money Laundering Law of 2017. The only lawful draws are promotional commercial competitions licensed by the Ministry of Commerce, which may not require a purchase to enter. Enforcement reported by official sources is against people found gambling, such as the 17 expatriates the Riyadh police arrested in a flat in 2020; no case against an offshore operator was found. A Penal Code for Discretionary Sentences, announced in 2021, would codify ta'zir offences, but it had not been enacted by September 2026 and its text is unpublished. No bill to legalise or regulate gambling was found.
Looking for a gambling article in a Saudi penal code: there is no general penal code, and gambling is punished on a Sharia basis as a discretionary offence, so there is no statutory tariff for players. Reading the Anti-Cyber Crime Law as covering only pornography: Article 6(3) names gambling activities as well. Treating the Civil Transactions Law competition contract, or a Ministry of Commerce commercial competition licence, as a route to a prize game with paid entry: the competition contract requires that winning depends on effort and that not all competitors fund the prize, and a licensed commercial competition may not require a purchase.
Online casino and online sports betting are prohibited in Saudi Arabia, so no licence currently permits offering them. The licensing regime as recorded is set out below.
Our record shows no gambling licence requirement in Saudi Arabia.
Saudi Arabia has no dedicated gambling regulator.
Built from the record on this page, last verified 24 Sept 2026. The Licensing and Taxation sections carry the full detail and sources.
Basic Law of Governance, Royal Order No. A/90 of 27/8/1412H
النظام الأساسي للحكم
Anti-Cyber Crime Law, Royal Decree No. M/17 of 8/3/1428H
نظام مكافحة الجرائم المعلوماتية
Civil Transactions Law, Royal Decree No. M/191 of 2023
نظام المعاملات المدنية
Anti-Money Laundering Law, Royal Decree No. M/20 of 2017
نظام مكافحة غسل الأموال
Ministry of Commerce conditions for licensing commercial competitions
اشتراطات ترخيص تنظيم المسابقات التجارية
Draft Penal Code for Discretionary Sentences (مشروع النظام الجزائي للعقوبات التعزيرية)
Arrested by the Riyadh Region Police with SAR 20,000 in their possession and referred to the Public Prosecution, according to the police spokesman's statement carried by the Saudi Press Agency
Mar 1992
Basic Law of Governance issued (Royal Order A/90 of 27/8/1412H): the Quran and Sunnah are the constitution and crimes may rest on a Sharia text
27 Mar 2007
Anti-Cyber Crime Law issued (Royal Decree M/17), Article 6(3) criminalising the preparation and promotion of gambling material online
May 2015
Royal Decree M/54 amends Article 6 of the Anti-Cyber Crime Law to allow publication of the judgment at the offender's expense
14 Nov 2017
Anti-Money Laundering Law issued (Royal Decree M/20), treating any offence under Sharia or statute as a predicate offence
Jun 2018
FATF and MENAFATF adopt the Saudi mutual evaluation, recording that gambling is illegal and casinos prohibited
11 Jul 2020
Riyadh Region Police arrest 17 expatriates for gambling in a residential flat and refer them to the Public Prosecution
8 Feb 2021
Crown Prince announces four draft laws, including the Civil Transactions Law and a Penal Code for Discretionary Sentences
18 Jun 2023
Civil Transactions Law issued (Royal Decree M/191); Article 406 makes every agreement on gambling void
10 Sept 2024
Ministry of Commerce restates the licence conditions for commercial competitions, including that entry may not require a purchase
Nothing points to legalisation: no bill or consultation on gambling was found. The development to watch is the draft Penal Code for Discretionary Sentences announced in February 2021, which would put ta'zir offences, possibly including gambling, into statute with fixed penalties; it had not been enacted by 24 September 2026 and no date has been given.
France's gambling regulator has broken its 2025 online sports betting figures down by sport and found growth built on more matches, a 24-hour live offer and operators steering payouts to the 85% cap. The sharper finding is who bets on the obscure end of the menu: mostly players its own algorithm flags as excessive.
The Åland operator behind mycasino.ch will give Meta licence documents and website addresses so Facebook and Instagram can tell Swiss licensees from offshore operators and their affiliates. Meta has said nothing publicly, and the pilot comes a week after Dutch operators took the platform to court.
Evolution commissioned it in 2022 to answer Black Cube, has called it exonerating, and spent months resisting its disclosure. Now that it is out, it clears Evolution of illegal practice and of operating in sanctioned countries, and separately finds significant compliance failings and games reachable from four prohibited markets. Playtech has moved first on the reading.
The Esports Foundation has pushed its inaugural national-teams tournament back a full year, citing the wider regional situation. Riyadh keeps the event and the development money keeps flowing, but the esports betting calendar has just lost its biggest new fixture of 2026.
In a sign of immense confidence in the future of the Middle Eastern gaming market, Wynn Resorts is reportedly already making plans for a second casino
The General Commercial Gaming Regulatory Authority (GCGRA) has awarded a Gaming Related Vendor Licence to Fennica Gaming, further shaping the United Arab
Source tiers. Tier 1: the law, official gazette, licence register or regulator itself. Tier 2: other official sources such as ministries, parliaments, courts and statistics agencies. Only tier 1 and tier 2 sources can support a fact on their own.
Bureau of Experts at the Council of Ministers, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (laws.boe.gov.sa)
laws.boe.gov.sa did not respond to requests from outside Saudi Arabia on 2026-09-24 (connection timed out), so the page was read from the Internet Archive capture given in archiveUrl. The page shows the law as in force (ساري).
Archived copyBureau of Experts at the Council of Ministers, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (laws.boe.gov.sa)
laws.boe.gov.sa did not respond to requests from outside Saudi Arabia on 2026-09-24 (connection timed out), so the page was read from the Internet Archive capture given in archiveUrl. The page shows the law as in force (ساري). The Arabic text governs; the English translation renders أنشطة الميسر as "gambling activities".
Archived copyShura Council, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
Ministry of Justice, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (Legal Portal, laws.moj.gov.sa)
Read in English on the portal; the Arabic text of Article 406 on the same portal reads "يقع باطلاً كلُّ اتفاقٍ على قمار" (every agreement on gambling is void). The portal gives the Hijri dates as issued 29 Dhu al-Qadah 1444 and published 1 Dhu al-Hijjah 1444.
Bureau of Experts at the Council of Ministers, Official Translation Department (published on the Ministry of Investment website)
Bureau of Experts at the Council of Ministers, Official Translation Department (published on the Ministry of Investment website)
The official translation is dated 14 November 2017; the 2018 FATF-MENAFATF evaluation (para. 5) gives 24 October 2017 as the date the law was adopted.
FATF and MENAFATF
fatf-gafi.org returned HTTP 403 to a plain request on 2026-09-24, so the PDF was read from the Internet Archive capture of 15 September 2026 given in archiveUrl.
Archived copyMinistry of Commerce, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
The page shows no Gregorian publication date; 10 September 2024 follows from the page address (10-09-24) and its last-modified date of 7 Rabi al-Awwal 1446.
Saudi Press Agency (statement of the Riyadh Region Police spokesman)
Saudi Press Agency
Saudi Press Agency
Ministry of Justice, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (Legal Portal, laws.moj.gov.sa)
A search of the Ministry of Justice legislation portal on 2026-09-24 returned the Civil Transactions Law (Article 406) and the Implementing Regulations of the Law of Sharia Procedure for "قمار", and no enacted penal code for discretionary (ta'zir) sentences.
Communications, Space and Technology Commission (CST), Kingdom of Saudi Arabia