Is online gambling legal in Monaco?

Legal overview

Gambling in Monaco rests on Law No. 1.103 of 12 June 1987 on games of chance, read together with Article 350 of the Penal Code, which makes running games of chance without authorisation an offence. Authorisations are granted by sovereign ordinance, which names the holder, the premises and the number of tables and machines; a holder of a monopoly granted by sovereign ordinance is exempt from the ordinary authorisation rules. In practice this is the Société des Bains de Mer, which runs the principality's land-based casinos. Lotteries, mutual betting and prediction contests fall outside the law. Article 9 bars people under 18 from entering gaming houses, and Article 11 prohibits Monegasque nationals, as well as officials and employees of the State, the Commune and public bodies, from playing in them. The Gambling Authority, part of the Ministry of Finance and Economy, supervises gaming houses and can act under the authority of the Public Prosecutor.

The 1987 law was written for physical gaming houses and contains no provisions on online or remote gambling. Monaco does not issue licences for online casinos, online poker or online betting, so there is no locally regulated online offer, and a foreign licence gives an operator no right to the Monaco market. The ban on Monegasque nationals applies to playing in gaming houses; no law text was found that extends it, or any other prohibition, to residents playing on foreign websites, and no official blocking of foreign gambling sites could be confirmed. Players using offshore sites therefore act in an unregulated grey market without the supervision of the Gambling Authority or any local dispute procedure.