Gambling Regulation in the Gulf: A Region in Transition

For decades, the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) states — Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain, and Oman — presented a largely uniform legal position on gambling: it is prohibited. That prohibition rests on Islamic law (Sharia), which classifies gambling as maysir, forbidden on religious grounds, and it has historically been reinforced by criminal statutes rather than dedicated gaming regulators. In 2026, that uniformity is breaking down in one country, while it remains firmly intact in the others.

The UAE's regulatory shift

The clearest change has come from the United Arab Emirates. In 2023, the federal government created the General Commercial Gaming Regulatory Authority (GCGRA), based in Abu Dhabi, to license and supervise commercial gaming nationwide. The authority issued its first land-based casino operator licence to Wynn Resorts in October 2024 for a property in Ras Al Khaimah, and in late 2025 it granted the first online casino and sports-wagering licence, to a platform called Play971. As of mid-2026, Play971 remains the only entity legally permitted to offer online gambling in the UAE, and it currently operates in Abu Dhabi and Ras Al Khaimah, not Dubai.

A further legal shift took effect on 1 June 2026: Federal Decree-Law No. 25 of 2025 removed the UAE Civil Code's provisions voiding gambling contracts, replacing decades of blanket civil-law prohibition with a licensing regime administered entirely by the GCGRA. This gives licensed gaming contracts formal legal enforceability for the first time. It does not legalise gambling generally — unlicensed gambling remains a criminal offence, with penalties reported as up to two years' imprisonment and fines for individual players, and considerably harsher penalties for anyone operating or facilitating unlicensed activity. Bahrain online casinos

The rest of the Gulf

Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait, and Oman have not adopted comparable frameworks. Gambling remains fully illegal in each, both online and offline, with no licensed operators, no domestic casinos, and enforcement carried out through general criminal law and internet-filtering rather than a specialised gaming regulator. Saudi Arabia's Communications, Space and Technology Commission handles website blocking, while its Ministry of Interior and Public Prosecution pursue criminal cases; penalties can include fines, imprisonment, and confiscation of assets. Bahrain sits closer to the UAE's older posture: gambling is illegal for residents, though some licensed gaming has historically been permitted in limited tourism contexts, and enforcement is generally considered less aggressive than in Saudi Arabia or Kuwait.

Why the distinction matters

A recurring source of confusion is the idea that an offshore casino's foreign licence — from jurisdictions such as Curaçao — makes it legal to use from the Gulf. It does not. Licensing in one jurisdiction has no bearing on the law where the player is physically located; access to a site being technically possible is not the same as that access being lawful. The UAE's GCGRA framework is notable precisely because it is a rare example of a Gulf state building a domestic licensing path rather than simply prohibiting the activity outright, but even there, only officially licensed platforms fall outside the criminal prohibition — everything else remains subject to it.