Is Online Gambling Legal in Saudi Arabia?
No. Saudi Arabia’s legal system rests on Islamic Sharia, interpreted through the Hanbali school, and gambling and lotteries are illegal. There is no licensed casino, lottery or betting operator anywhere in the Kingdom, and no licence that an online operator could apply for.
Because Saudi Arabia has no written penal code, offences without a penalty fixed in Islamic law are punished under ta’zir, the discretionary system in which judges decide the sentence. Ta’zir penalties include prison, fines, confiscation of assets and travel bans, and the outcome of a case depends heavily on the court and the circumstances. Police treat gambling as a criminal matter and refer the people they arrest to the Public Prosecution.
The Anti-Cyber Crime Law and Gambling Sites
Online gambling is also addressed in written law. The Anti-Cyber Crime Law, issued by Royal Decree M/17 in March 2007, lists in Article 6 a set of offences punishable by up to five years in prison, a fine of up to SAR 3 million, or both. Item 3 of that article covers the preparation, publication and promotion of material for gambling sites that violates public morals.
The law reaches beyond the person who posts. Article 9 punishes anyone who incites, assists or collaborates in such an offence, up to the full penalty if the offence is committed, and Article 10 makes an attempt punishable by up to half the maximum. Under Article 8, aggravating factors such as organised crime or a previous conviction mean the sentence cannot fall below half the maximum.
Website Blocking and Arrests in Saudi Arabia
Saudi Arabia has blocked websites at the national level for many years, and gambling has long been one of the blocked categories, alongside pornography. The telecoms regulator, then called the Communications and Information Technology Commission and now the Communications, Space and Technology Commission, received more than 1.2 million requests to block links in 2017 alone, up 24% on the year before. A casino site that opens today can be blocked tomorrow.
Arrests for gambling are reported regularly. In July 2020 Riyadh Police arrested 17 expatriates playing cards for a large amount of cash in an apartment and referred them to the Public Prosecution. In 2015, 16 expatriates were arrested for gambling at a house in Makkah, and in 2014 police in Taif seized SR21,388 from 11 workers caught gambling in a building there.
How International Online Casinos Work for Players in Saudi Arabia
Each casino on the list operates under a licence from a regulator outside Saudi Arabia. That licence sets the rules on identity checks, withdrawals and complaints, and no Saudi authority oversees these sites, so the licence printed on the card is the only safeguard you have. The regulators that come up most often are profiled in our overview of casino licences, and what separates a domestic licence from a foreign one is laid out in licensed versus offshore casinos.
Some international casinos name Saudi Arabia on their restricted-country list, and a casino can void winnings from an account registered from a restricted country. Several of the casinos listed offer their site in Arabic, which makes the terms easier to read in full before the first deposit.
Casino Bonuses for Players in Saudi Arabia
Welcome offers on the cards are priced in euros, and none of the casinos listed run accounts in riyals, so every deposit involves a currency conversion and the bonus value in riyals moves with the exchange rate. The rollover is the amount of betting a bonus requires: SAR 2,000 of bonus money at 35x means SAR 70,000 in bets before it can be paid out. Slot games normally count in full, live dealer games often count for a small share or not at all, and free spin winnings tend to come with their own rollover and a maximum cashout. A casino can also accept players from Saudi Arabia while excluding them from promotions, which is why some cards show no offer. Offers that include the Kingdom are gathered on our page of Saudi Arabia casino bonuses.
Payments in Saudi Riyals
International casinos decide their own payment methods, which usually means cards, e-wallets, bank transfers and cryptocurrency. Each casino’s options are shown on its card and compared across casinos in our payment methods overview. Since deposits from Saudi Arabia are converted from riyals, check the conversion fee and the minimum withdrawal in the casino’s banking terms, and note that a withdrawal usually has to go back to the same method used to deposit.
Gambling Winnings and Tax in Saudi Arabia
Saudi Arabia has no personal income tax, for residents or non-residents. With gambling itself illegal, the question for online play is the law rather than the tax. How winnings are taxed in licensed markets is compared in do you pay tax on casino winnings?
Horse Racing and Casinos in the Gulf
Saudi Arabia stages one of the richest races in the world, the Saudi Cup, run at the King Abdulaziz Racetrack in Riyadh since February 2020. The race carries a US$20 million purse, yet gambling remains outlawed in the Kingdom and there are no casinos.
The change in the Gulf has come from the United Arab Emirates, which set up a commercial gaming regulator in 2023 and in October 2024 granted its first gaming licence, to Wynn Al Marjan Island in Ras Al Khaimah, a resort due to open in early 2027.
A Short History of Gambling Law in Saudi Arabia
Saudi Arabia’s ban on gambling comes from the same Sharia principles that govern the rest of its legal system, and punishment has been left largely to the courts. As internet use spread, the state’s web filtering came to include gambling sites, and in 2007 the Anti-Cyber Crime Law added a written offence for promoting gambling sites online. In February 2021 Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman announced four laws to codify the legal system: a personal status law, a civil transactions law, a law of evidence and a penal code for discretionary sanctions. The personal status law and the law of evidence took effect in 2022 and the civil transactions law followed, but the penal code has not been passed.
Responsible Gambling and Help in Saudi Arabia
With no legal gambling market, Saudi Arabia has no self-exclusion register or gambling helpline. Anyone worried about their gambling, or about debts from it, can speak to a doctor, a counsellor or a trusted person. At an international casino, the protection is in the account: deposit caps, cooling-off periods and self-exclusion, ideally switched on before the first deposit. National systems in other countries are compared in self-exclusion registers explained.
The Future of Online Gambling in Saudi Arabia
Nothing points to legal gambling in Saudi Arabia. The open question is codification: once the penal code for discretionary sanctions is issued, the penalties for gambling could be written into law instead of being left to each judge. A draft was reported in 2024, but the code has still not been passed. Elsewhere in the region the picture ranges from Kuwait’s Penal Code to the new licensed regime in the UAE, covered on our pages for online casinos in Kuwait and online casinos in the United Arab Emirates.
