Is online gambling legal in Syria?

Legal overview

Gambling in Syria is governed by the Penal Code issued by Legislative Decree No. 148 of 1949. Articles 618 to 620 deal with games of chance. Article 619 describes them as games in which luck outweighs skill or intelligence and names roulette, baccarat, faro, petits chevaux and open poker, together with similar or derived games. The code treats both running a gambling house and taking part in gambling as unlawful, with a heavier penalty for those who open a gambling house. No Syrian law creates a licence for online casino games, sports betting or poker, and no private operator is authorised to serve residents.

The only legal form of gambling for many years was the state lottery linked to the Damascus International Fair. Its draws stopped when the previous government fell in December 2024, and the new authorities later suspended them indefinitely, so no lawful gambling product is currently available to residents.

In June 2026 the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology restricted access to online gambling and betting websites aimed at users in Syria, saying such activity violates existing legal provisions. A ministry committee was set up to review the sites, and the ministry asked social media platforms to stop advertising for them. Offshore casinos therefore have no legal standing in Syria, and players who use them have no local regulator or complaint route if a dispute arises. A lawyer quoted in the Syrian press said that prosecutions have tended to focus on local intermediaries rather than on foreign platforms.