Legal casino gambling age in IsraelIsrael follows a prohibition model with two state-controlled exceptions. Chapter 12 of the Penal Law 5737-1977 makes it an offence to organise games of chance, lotteries and betting and to play prohibited games, and no commercial gambling licence of any kind is available. Lawful gambling is confined to the national lottery, Mifal HaPais, which operates under a permit from the Minister of Finance, and to the Israel Sports Betting Board, a statutory body that runs the Toto and Winner sports betting products under a 1967 law. There are no casinos and no licensed online casinos. Offshore websites are addressed through court-ordered blocking by internet service providers and through restrictions on payments.
Key points
- Sections 224–235 of the Penal Law define “prohibited games”, lotteries and betting. Organising them is punishable by up to three years’ imprisonment; playing a prohibited game by up to one year.
- Only two operators are lawful: Mifal HaPais (lotteries, under a Ministry of Finance permit) and the Israel Sports Betting Board (sports betting, under the Law for the Regulation of Sports Betting 5727-1967).
- The Ministry of Finance supervises legal gambling. We found no evidence of a separate statutory gambling regulator.
- Since a 2017 law, district courts can order internet service providers to block illegal gambling websites; Chambers describes the law as first applied in late 2018. Banks and card issuers are also restricted from processing gambling payments.
- Gambling and prize winnings above a per-win exemption threshold are taxed at 35%, whether or not the gambling was lawful.
- Proposals to extend the Sports Betting Board’s products, notably live in-play betting, were debated in 2025 but faced opposition from the police and the welfare ministry.
Last reviewed: 6 October 2026.
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Historical development
Israel’s approach to gambling has been restrictive since the early years of the state. Rather than licensing private operators, the state channelled demand into a small number of public bodies whose profits fund public purposes. The first of these, Mifal HaPais, was founded in 1951, initially to fund a hospital in Tel Aviv; for decades a large share of its profits financed the construction of classrooms and day-care centres, with further shares going to local authorities and to culture and the arts (Mifal HaPais overview).
Sports betting followed in 1967. The State Comptroller records that the Law for the Regulation of Sports Betting was enacted in August 1967 and that the Israel Sports Betting Board (ISBB) began work on 1 January 1968. Its stated purpose was to create a state authority to organise betting, operate fairly towards bettors and distribute profits to promote sport (State Comptroller, Annual Report 28).
The general criminal prohibition was consolidated in the Penal Law of 1977, which brought earlier rules together in a chapter on “prohibited games, lotteries and betting”. The law predates the internet, and the arrival of offshore betting and casino websites in the 2000s produced a long series of enforcement measures. In a 2010 report, the State Comptroller described internet gambling as “one of the significant crime generators in Israel” and criticised weak coordination between the police, financial regulators and anti-money laundering authorities (State Comptroller, Annual Report 61B).
Attempts to block websites without a specific statute failed in court in 2012, which led eventually to the blocking law of 2017. In parallel, the Ministry of Finance tightened its supervision of the two legal operators, restricting some of their products.
Legal framework
Penal Law 5737-1977, sections 224–235
The core of Israeli gambling law is Chapter 12 of the Penal Law 5737-1977, sections 224 to 235. A practitioner summary by a criminal defence firm and the Chambers guide written by Liran Barak of Herzog Fox & Neeman describe the provisions as follows (Doc law office, prohibited games offences; Chambers Gaming Law 2025: Israel):
- Section 224 (definitions). A “prohibited game” is one in which a person may win money or something of value and the outcome depends more on chance than on understanding or skill. “Lottery” and “betting” are defined separately, broadly as arrangements in which winning depends on a draw or on guessing an outcome.
- Section 225 (organising). A person who organises or conducts a prohibited game, lottery or betting is liable to three years’ imprisonment or a fine. Herzog Fox & Neeman put the maximum fine at ILS 452,000.
- Section 226 (playing). A person who plays a prohibited game is liable to one year’s imprisonment or a fine, stated by the same firm as up to ILS 29,200.
- Sections 227–228 (tickets and premises). Offering, selling or distributing tickets for a lottery or betting is an offence, as is keeping a place for prohibited games. A landlord who knowingly allows premises to be used in this way also commits an offence.
- Section 229 (closure orders). A district police commander may order the closure of premises used for prohibited games.
- Section 230 (social gaming). The prohibitions do not apply to a game played within a particular circle of people, for amusement only, and not in a place used for prohibited games.
- Section 231 (permits). The Minister of Finance may permit a specific lottery or betting operation in advance. Selling tickets to minors is prohibited, with up to six months’ imprisonment.
- Sections 232–235 (evidence and forfeiture). These contain evidential provisions and allow the forfeiture of gaming equipment and money.
The predominance test in section 224 has produced litigation on games that combine skill and chance. According to Herzog Fox & Neeman, a Tel Aviv court considered in 2011 that a game’s “social interest and utility” could be relevant, and in Civil Appeal 476/17, a tax case, a majority of the Supreme Court suggested, in a non-binding remark (obiter dictum), that poker played professionally may not be a game of chance. The ruling did not legalise commercial poker (Herzog Fox & Neeman, 2024).
Law for the Regulation of Sports Betting 5727-1967
The Law for the Regulation of Sports Betting 5727-1967 establishes the ISBB and gives it the power to organise and conduct betting on the results of sports competitions. Its betting schemes are set out in regulations approved by the ministers responsible and by the Knesset’s Education, Culture and Sports Committee. The law prohibits the sale of betting tickets to minors, with a penalty of six months’ imprisonment, and requires coded registration of participant details for larger wagers to prevent money laundering.
Powers to Prevent Offences by Means of an Internet Site Law 2017
The Knesset approved a law on 17 July 2017 allowing district court judges, with permission from the court president, to order internet service providers to block websites used for specified offences, including illegal gambling, and to order search engines to remove them from results. The vote was 63 to 10. The Ministry of Justice must report annually to the Knesset on blocking requests (The Times of Israel, July 2017). Some English-language sources give the Hebrew year of this law as 5767; the year 2017 corresponds to 5777.
Regulator and licensing model
Israel has a state monopoly model: a small number of public bodies hold the exclusive right to offer gambling, and no private licences exist. Chambers states plainly that no commercial gambling licences are available (Chambers 2025). The two legal operators are:
- Mifal HaPais, the national lottery, which operates under a permit issued by the Minister of Finance under section 231 of the Penal Law. According to Chambers, the permit runs for five years and is renewable. Its products include Lotto, Chance, scratch cards and other draws (Mifal HaPais overview).
- The Israel Sports Betting Board, which runs the Toto pools and the Winner fixed-odds products. Under an August 2023 amendment its 13 board members are appointed by the Ministers of Culture and Sport, Finance, and Welfare. In 2023 its turnover was ILS 3,484 million and its net profit ILS 783.4 million; about 24.8% of turnover came through its website and app, and it operated about 1,500 retail points of sale. Following a 2019 legislative amendment, its profits are transferred to the state quarterly (ISBB, management report 2023).
Supervision lies with the Ministry of Finance, which grants Mifal HaPais’s permit and approves the terms on which both operators work. A licensing agreement in 2012 gave the ministry broad oversight of all legal gambling (Mifal HaPais overview). The Israel Police, the State Attorney’s Office and the Bank of Israel are also involved in enforcement (Herzog Fox & Neeman, 2024). The ministry has used its powers to restrict products: it revoked Mifal HaPais’s permit for video lottery terminals in 2017, and the ISBB lost permission to accept bets on foreign horse racing in 2018 (International Gambling Laws and Regulations Review 2024/25). In June 2022 the ministry’s Budget Division was reported to be considering limiting Mifal HaPais to three Chance draws a day and cutting its retail outlets by a quarter (Ynet, June 2022).
We could not verify the existence of a separate gambling regulation authority, with its own statute or head, created in 2022. The sources reviewed describe supervision by the Ministry of Finance itself. A 2012 government plan for an inter-ministerial committee on legal gambling, led by the Ministry of Justice, was reported but is not described as a standing regulator (Ynet, March 2012).
Online gambling and enforcement
What is permitted online
Only the two state operators may offer gambling online, and only within their own products: the ISBB through its website and app, and Mifal HaPais for its lotteries. No online casino can be licensed, because no statute or permit authorises casino games, and the Penal Law applies to online games as it does to physical ones. Herzog Fox & Neeman note that the courts have extended the 1977 prohibitions to online gambling and that enforcement focuses on operators who target Israeli consumers or have links to local criminal organisations (Herzog Fox & Neeman, 2024).
Website blocking
Early attempts to block websites rested on general police powers. The police ordered internet service providers to block online gambling sites in August 2010 (The Jewish Chronicle, 2010). The State Comptroller found that the operators of seven blocked sites simply moved to new addresses (State Comptroller, Annual Report 61B). In April 2012 the Tel Aviv Administrative Court, in a petition brought by the Israel Internet Association, quashed the police orders, holding that blocking restricted freedom of expression without adequate legal authority (CalvinAyre, April 2012).
The 2017 law supplied that authority. On 18 October 2018, according to a trade report, the Tel Aviv District Court granted blocking orders under the law against three betting domains, on application by the police and prosecutors (Reviewed Casinos, October 2018). Blocking orders are now the main tool against offshore sites, though, as with other countries’ blocklists, they can be circumvented.
Payment restrictions
Restrictions on payments developed alongside blocking. The State Comptroller reported that credit card companies did not act until 2009, even though legal opinions from 2003–2005 had recommended restrictions (State Comptroller, Annual Report 61B). In 2009 the police directed card companies to refuse payments to gambling sites, and the companies complied (The Jewish Chronicle, 2010). According to Herzog Fox & Neeman, the Bank of Israel’s Proper Conduct of Banking Business Directive No. 411, under measures introduced in 2021, imposes “severe restrictions” on Israeli financial and credit institutions in relation to transactions linked to online gambling (International Gambling Laws and Regulations Review 2024/25).
Advertising
Advertising by the legal operators is restricted. According to Chambers, gambling advertisements may not be broadcast on television or radio between 3 pm and 9 pm, may not target minors or glorify gambling, must carry standard risk warnings, and may not link gambling with financial security, spending beyond one’s means or the idea that skill increases the chance of winning (Chambers 2025).
Position of players
Israeli law, unlike that of many countries, makes participation itself an offence. The position can be summarised as follows:
- Playing a prohibited game. Under section 226 of the Penal Law, playing a prohibited game is punishable by up to one year’s imprisonment or a fine of up to ILS 29,200 (Chambers 2025). The provision does not distinguish between land-based and online play, so playing casino games with an unlicensed online operator falls within it.
- Social gaming. Section 230 exempts games within a particular circle, played for amusement only and not in a gambling venue. It does not cover commercial online sites.
- Evidence. Sections 232–235 contain evidential provisions that can assist prosecutions, and gaming equipment and money may be forfeited.
- Lawful products. Playing the products of Mifal HaPais and the ISBB is lawful for adults aged 18 and over.
In practice, the sources we reviewed describe enforcement as directed at organisers, agents and venues rather than at individuals who bet online. We found no published statistics on prosecutions of online players and no reported case in which a person was convicted solely for playing on an offshore website. That absence should not be read as legality: the offence exists and applies to players as well as organisers.
Taxation
Operators
Because the only lawful operators are state bodies, there is no gambling tax regime for private operators. The state instead captures the surplus of the monopolies. The ISBB transfers its entire profit to the state quarterly under a 2019 amendment (ISBB, management report 2023), and Mifal HaPais’s profits are allocated to public purposes under its permit.
Players’ winnings
Income from gambling, lotteries and prize-bearing activities is a separate category of taxable income under section 2A of the Income Tax Ordinance, with the rate set in section 124B and an exemption for small wins in section 9(28). The rate was 25% when the tax was introduced in July 2003, rose to 30% in August 2013 and to 35% from January 2017; an additional 3% surtax on high annual incomes may also apply (Hebrew Wikipedia, taxation of gambling). Losses cannot be deducted, and the tax is generally collected by withholding at source under regulations of 2003.
For 2026 a tax adviser’s guide gives the full exemption as winnings of up to ILS 33,840 per win, with a partial exemption up to ILS 67,680 and the full 35% rate above that amount. The same guide states that Israeli residents are taxable on winnings abroad and that tax applies regardless of whether the activity was lawful (Yuvalim, gambling taxation guide 2026). Paying tax on winnings does not make illegal gambling lawful. Chambers adds that, following court rulings in 2018, professional poker players have been taxed on their winnings as ordinary business income, with expenses deductible (Chambers 2025).
Consumer protection and responsible gambling
Israel has no national self-exclusion register covering all gambling. Responsible gambling measures are run mainly by the two operators and by treatment organisations funded in part from their proceeds:
- Operator tools. The ISBB reports that in 2023 it carried out 2,630 monitoring checks at retail outlets, had 463,500 registered identified customers, lowered deposit limits for players at risk and offered voluntary account closure on its digital platforms (ISBB, management report 2023). Mifal HaPais runs a “Responsible Gaming” programme and prohibits sales to anyone under 18 (Mifal HaPais, Responsible Gaming).
- Helplines. Mifal HaPais lists the Efshar Association helpline (1-700-500-888), the HaDerech Association and the Ministry of Welfare’s 118 information line (Mifal HaPais, Responsible Gaming). Efshar has run a public treatment unit for gambling since 2001 and reported treating 3,249 people between 2001 and 2015 (Efshar Association).
- Treatment. At a Knesset committee hearing on 16 December 2020, data from a 2017 national survey were presented showing that 16.3% of adults aged 18–65 gambled at least once a year and that the Mila treatment centres in Haifa, Tel Aviv and Beersheba had about 140 active patients, 86% of them men (Knesset Special Committee for Combating Drugs and Alcohol, 2020). In 2023 Ynet reported that Mifal HaPais allocates several million shekels a year to prevention and treatment (Ynet, September 2023).
General guidance on safer gambling is available in our responsible gambling guide.
Recent and upcoming developments
- Live betting (2020–2025). Proposals to let the ISBB offer in-play betting, wagering while a match is in progress, have recurred. In June 2020 Globes reported that sports officials sought the change, while the Treasury had reservations (Globes, June 2020). In April 2025 the Minister of Culture and Sport, Miki Zohar, and the ISBB pressed again for live betting, arguing that it would reduce the black market. The Israel Police opposed it, the Ministry of Welfare warned of harm to vulnerable people, and officials of the Ministries of Justice and Finance were also reported to be opposed; the Minister of Finance, who holds the decision, requested further information (Mako, April 2025). We found no decision approving live betting as of the date of review.
- Governance of the ISBB (2023–2026). An August 2023 amendment enlarged the board to 13 members, including a welfare ministry appointee (ISBB, management report 2023). Knesset documents on its recent budgets could not be accessed, and we found no enacted structural reform of the board, such as privatisation or an end to its monopoly, as of October 2026.
- Poker bill (2022). A private member’s bill to permit regulated real-money poker tournaments under Ministry of Finance permits was introduced in December 2022 and, according to Chambers, was still awaiting a decision on committee referral (Chambers 2025).
- Outlook. Practitioners consider liberalisation of the market unlikely in the near term (Chambers 2025).
Casino listings for players in Israel
The listings below are generated automatically from our casino database. They do not show that an operator is licensed or authorised in Israel. No online casino can be licensed under Israeli law: the only lawful gambling services are those of Mifal HaPais and the Israel Sports Betting Board. Offering online casino games to people in Israel is prohibited, playing a prohibited game is itself an offence under section 226 of the Penal Law, and the listings must not be read as an indication that playing is lawful.
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Sources and further reading
- Knesset, Penal Law 5737-1977 (official text) (accessed 6 October 2026).
- Barak, L. (Herzog Fox & Neeman), Chambers and Partners, Gaming Law 2025: Israel (accessed 6 October 2026).
- Herzog Fox & Neeman, Israel’s Conservative Stance on Gambling: Legal Framework, Exceptions, and Emerging Trends (2024) (accessed 6 October 2026).
- Herzog Fox & Neeman, Beaumont Capital Markets, International Gambling Laws and Regulations Review 2024/25: Israel (accessed 6 October 2026).
- Doc law office, Offences of prohibited games, lotteries and betting (in Hebrew) (accessed 6 October 2026).
- Law for the Regulation of Sports Betting 5727-1967, Consolidated Hebrew text (accessed 6 October 2026).
- Israel Sports Betting Board, Management report for 2023 (in Hebrew) (accessed 6 October 2026).
- State Comptroller of Israel, Illegal gambling conducted via the internet, Annual Report 61B (in Hebrew) (accessed 6 October 2026).
- State Comptroller of Israel, Sports Betting Board, Annual Report 28 (in Hebrew) (accessed 6 October 2026).
- The Times of Israel, To tackle online crime, Israel approves web censorship law (2017) (accessed 6 October 2026).
- CalvinAyre, Israeli court rejects ISP blocking; gov’t monopolies on notice (2012) (accessed 6 October 2026).
- Reviewed Casinos, Israeli court orders ISP blocking (2018) (accessed 6 October 2026).
- The Jewish Chronicle, Police clamp down on gambling in Israel (2010) (accessed 6 October 2026).
- Ynet, Legal gambling: government body to fight money laundering (2012, in Hebrew) (accessed 6 October 2026).
- Ynet, Will the Treasury change Mifal HaPais’s licence? (2022, in Hebrew) (accessed 6 October 2026).
- Globes, The government’s way to fund coronavirus damage: expanding the gambling market (2020, in Hebrew) (accessed 6 October 2026).
- Mako, Against the police position: Minister Miki Zohar pushes to expand gambling in Israel (2025, in Hebrew) (accessed 6 October 2026).
- Wikipedia, Mifal HaPais (accessed 6 October 2026).
- Wikipedia (Hebrew), Taxation of gambling, lotteries and prize-bearing activities (accessed 6 October 2026).
- Yuvalim, Guide to taxation of gambling, lotteries and prizes: section 2A of the Income Tax Ordinance (updated for 2026, in Hebrew) (accessed 6 October 2026).
- Mifal HaPais, Responsible Gaming (in Hebrew) (accessed 6 October 2026).
- Efshar Association, Gambling in Israel: the current picture (in Hebrew) (accessed 6 October 2026).
- Open Knesset, Special Committee for Combating Drugs and Alcohol: gambling addiction, 16 December 2020 (in Hebrew) (accessed 6 October 2026).
- Ynet, The addiction crisis: how to help those addicted to gambling (2023, in Hebrew) (accessed 6 October 2026).
