Is online gambling legal in Palestine?

Legal overview

In the West Bank, gambling is dealt with by Penal Code No. 16 of 1960, the Jordanian-era code that remains part of the law applied there. Chapter three of its tenth part covers gambling. Article 393 treats anyone who opens, runs or uses premises for unlawful gambling, or knowingly lets others do so, as operating a public gambling house, and defines unlawful gambling as card games that need no skill and any other game in which chance does not favour all players equally, including the bank or the people running the game. Running such a place is punishable by up to six months in prison and a fine (Article 394). People found in a public gambling house are presumed to be there to gamble and face a fine, rising to possible imprisonment for repeat offences (Article 395), and gambling equipment can be seized and confiscated (Article 396).

Lotteries are banned under Article 397, which also penalises printing or publishing lottery advertisements and selling tickets, unless the lottery has permission from the competent authority. Apart from such permitted lotteries, the law provides no licence for casinos, betting or other games of chance.

The code predates the internet and does not mention online play, but no Palestinian body licenses online casinos, sports betting or poker, and none of these services is authorised. Sites that accept players from Palestine do so without local permission, and players have no Palestinian regulator or dispute service to turn to. A separate criminal law framework applies in the Gaza Strip, which was not reviewed for this page.