Is online gambling legal in Saudi Arabia?

Legal overview

Saudi Arabia has no law that licenses or regulates any form of gambling. The country's legal system is based on Islamic Sharia, which forbids games of chance for stakes, known as maysir or qimar. There is no separate codified gambling statute: gambling is treated as a discretionary (ta'zir) offence, so the courts decide the punishment case by case. As a result there are no casinos, no state lottery, no licensed sports betting and no legal online casino or poker sites, and foreign gambling licences carry no weight in the Kingdom.

The main written rule aimed at online gambling is the Anti-Cyber Crime Law, issued by Royal Decree No. M/17 of 8 Rabi I 1428H (26 March 2007). Article 6(3) makes it an offence to prepare, publish or promote material for gambling sites that violates public morals. The offence carries imprisonment of up to five years, a fine of up to SAR 3 million, or both. Article 6(1) separately covers producing, sending or storing material that affects public order, religious values or public morals through a network or computer.

For people in Saudi Arabia, every online casino is therefore an unlicensed and unlawful operator. Players have no regulator to complain to and no legal way to enforce winnings against an offshore site, and taking part in gambling can itself be prosecuted under Sharia-based criminal jurisdiction. Promoting gambling sites online, for example through affiliate content aimed at Saudi users, is expressly covered by the cybercrime law.