Legal casino gambling age in UzbekistanUzbekistan is moving from a long-standing prohibition of gambling to a narrow, state-controlled licensing model. For much of the period since independence, organising games of chance outside licensed lotteries was a criminal offence and taking part was an administrative offence. Presidential Decree No. UP-68 of 19 April 2024 changed this by permitting, from 1 January 2025, three activities under licence: lotteries, “games based on risk” on the internet, and bookmaking. All three are licensed and supervised by the National Agency of Perspective Projects (NAPP). The model is restrictive. Licences are open only to Uzbek resident companies with very high capital requirements, servers must be located in the country, and land-based casinos and gaming halls remain prohibited. The first licences were not issued until July 2026, some eighteen months after the market formally opened.
Key points
- Presidential Decree No. UP-68 of 19 April 2024 permits lotteries, internet games of chance and bookmaking from 1 January 2025, but only under a NAPP licence and only for players aged 18 or over.
- Detailed rules are set by Cabinet of Ministers Resolution No. 814 of 6 December 2024: licensees must be Uzbek resident legal entities with charter capital of at least 150,000 base calculation units (BCU) for online games and betting, servers in Uzbekistan and a single domain.
- Stationary or mobile gaming halls and casinos remain prohibited. Unlicensed organisation of gambling is still a crime under Article 278 of the Criminal Code.
- Licensed operators pay a 4% turnover tax on revenue net of winnings and returned stakes, and players’ winnings from licensed games are exempt from personal income tax. Since May 2026 this regime is formally an experiment running for three years from 1 July 2026.
- Advertising of gambling remains banned under Article 46 of the Law on Advertising. NAPP keeps a register of persons with gambling dependency, with self-exclusion for six months to five years.
- According to trade press, NAPP issued its first four licences, to two companies, in July 2026.
Last reviewed: 6 October 2026.
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Historical development
After independence in 1991, lotteries were the main lawful form of gambling. A Cabinet of Ministers Resolution No. 396 of 15 November 2002 on money and prize lotteries placed lottery activity under the supervision of the Ministry of Finance, gave the National Bank of Uzbekistan the right to organise money and prize lotteries, and introduced a single 20% tax on gross lottery revenue. That resolution remained on the statute book until it was repealed on 12 December 2024, as part of the new regime described below.
Other gambling was tightly restricted. Law No. ZRU-109 of 14 September 2007, adopted “in connection with the streamlining of the organisation and conduct of gambling and other games based on risk”, rewrote the relevant offences in the Criminal Code and the Code of Administrative Responsibility. It made unlawful organisation of gambling, including keeping premises for it, punishable by up to seven years’ imprisonment, and introduced specific liability for providing internet or telecommunications services for illegal gambling. The law entered into force on publication on 18 September 2007.
A first attempt at legal sports betting came in 2019. According to Kun.uz (October 2021), a presidential decree of 4 December 2019 on the development of football envisaged licensed bookmaking from 1 January 2021, but no government decision on the procedure was adopted. The Capital Market Development Agency, which was to issue licences, was abolished on 1 May 2021 and no business had received a licence. The same report noted that bookmaking and its advertising remained unlawful and that access to more than a dozen illegal betting websites had been restricted. In November 2022 the Ministry of Justice published a draft law to tighten penalties for organising, promoting and taking part in online gambling. Gazeta.uz reported the ministry’s figures that administrative cases had risen 2.3-fold and criminal cases 1.9-fold between 2019 and 2021. Whether that draft was enacted in the published form could not be verified.
The decisive change was Decree UP-68 of April 2024. Its preamble refers to the existing bans on national providers of online games, and it chose regulation over continued prohibition. A commentary on the Uzbekistan Law Blog (July 2024) warned that existing provisions of the Civil, Criminal and Administrative Codes and the Law on Advertising would conflict with the new regime unless amended.
Legal framework
There is no single gambling statute. The main instruments are:
- Presidential Decree No. UP-68 of 19 April 2024 “On measures to improve the regulation of the organisation and conduct of lotteries and games based on risk”, in force from 26 April 2024. Point 1 approves the proposal to permit lotteries, internet games and bookmaking from 1 January 2025 under licences issued by NAPP. Point 2 makes NAPP the authorised body for regulation and licensing and provides that only residents and non-residents of Uzbekistan aged 18 or over may take part. Point 3 sets the tax regime. Point 4 required the government to adopt licensing rules within two months and to prepare amendments to the laws on state duty, on licensing, and on advertising within three months.
- Cabinet of Ministers Resolution No. 814 of 6 December 2024, which implements the decree. It sets licensing requirements and conditions, the list of prohibited activities, rules on digital identification of players, and the procedure for keeping a list of persons with gambling dependency. The official Lex.uz explanation confirms that the rules apply from 1 January 2025.
- A law amending the licensing and related legislation, passed by the Legislative Chamber on 14 January 2025 and approved by the Senate on 21 February 2025, according to Gazeta.uz. It gives statutory footing to the five-year licence and to the exclusion of persons with gambling addiction. The number and signature date of this law could not be confirmed from the official portal.
- NAPP Order No. 14 of 25 June 2025 (registered by the Ministry of Justice on 7 July 2025 under No. 3643, in force from 9 October 2025), which sets the fines that the regulator may impose on licensees and on foreign entities that serve Uzbek residents without a licence.
- Article 278 of the Criminal Code and Article 191 of the Code of Administrative Responsibility, in the wording introduced by Law ZRU-109 of 2007 and later amended, which continue to penalise unlawful gambling.
- Presidential Decree No. UP-95 of 19 May 2026 on the reform of tax administration, which amended Decree UP-68 and recast its tax provisions as a three-year experiment from 1 July 2026.
Article 278 of the Criminal Code, in the 2007 wording, punishes “unlawful organisation or conduct of gambling and other games based on risk, including the organisation or keeping of dens for such games” with deprivation of liberty for up to seven years, and with seven to ten years if committed repeatedly or by an organised group. Involving a minor in gambling, and providing telecommunications or internet services or distributing software for illegal gambling, are crimes when committed after an administrative penalty for the same act. The 2024 decree did not repeal these provisions. Their effect now is to criminalise gambling organised without a NAPP licence. The current consolidated text on Lex.uz could not be read in full; the penalty ranges given here are those of the 2007 amending law and may since have been amended.
Regulator and licensing model
Uzbekistan uses a licensing model: activities are lawful only if carried out by a licence holder that meets published conditions. The regulator is the National Agency of Perspective Projects (NAPP). Under point 2 of Decree UP-68 it is “the authorised body for the regulation and licensing” of lotteries, internet games and bookmaking. The decree also gives the Department for Combating Economic Crimes a role in monitoring compliance with anti-money-laundering rules in the sector.
The main licensing requirements in Resolution No. 814 are:
- Who may hold a licence: only legal entities that are residents of Uzbekistan. Foreign groups must therefore establish a local company.
- Charter capital: at least 150,000 BCU for an organiser of internet games or bookmaking, and at least 55,000 BCU for a lottery organiser.
- Reserve fund: at least 75,000 BCU for internet games and bookmaking, and at least 40,000 BCU for lotteries.
- Technical conditions: the electronic platform must run on servers located in Uzbekistan, the operator may use only one domain name in the national segment of the internet, and gaming software must be certified.
- Term: licences are issued for five years.
In som terms, Gazeta.uz calculated in December 2024 that the capital requirement for online games and betting equalled 56.25 billion som, with a reserve fund of 28.125 billion som. The BCU is a reference amount revised periodically by the government. According to NAPP figures reported by Spot.uz in March 2026, the state duty for issuing a licence is 500 BCU (about 206 million som) and for amending a licence 250 BCU (about 103 million som). Earlier reports gave much lower som equivalents for the same BCU amounts, so current figures should be confirmed with NAPP. Resolution No. 814 directs 20% of the state duty to NAPP’s account. UzNews (March 2025) also reported annual fees of 37,000 BCU for bookmaking and internet games and 18,500 BCU for lotteries; this figure could not be checked against the primary text.
Persons convicted of economic, corruption, money-laundering or similar crimes, and former managers of licensees whose licences were revoked within three years, may not own or manage a licensee (Azizov & Partners). Lottery organisers must pay out at least 50% of revenue as prizes in paper lotteries and at least 75% in electronic lotteries (Gazeta.uz). State bodies and charitable organisations may run lotteries only through a licensed lottery organiser.
Uptake was slow. On 19 March 2025 UzNews reported that no licence had been issued, and on 18 March 2026 a NAPP official told Spot.uz that no formal applications had yet been filed, although there was interest. According to Yogonet (August 2026), the first licences were granted in July 2026: four licences to two companies, valid for five years until 30 July 2031. NAPP has also approved Gaming Laboratories International as a testing laboratory whose certification reports can be used to launch products in Uzbekistan. No official public register of licensees could be located on NAPP’s website.
Online gambling: what is permitted and how it is enforced
Online gambling is lawful in Uzbekistan only in three forms and only through a NAPP licensee: internet “games based on risk”, bookmaking and lotteries. The decree uses the term “games based on risk” rather than “casino”, and the rules govern games offered through a licensed electronic platform. Resolution No. 814 prohibits “stationary or mobile gaming halls and casinos” for gambling, so land-based casinos remain unlawful. It also bans bets on events taking place in Uzbekistan with the participation of Uzbek citizens, except international sporting events subject to oversight, and bets on children’s and youth competitions (Resolution No. 814; Gambling Insider, December 2024).
All deposits, purchases of lottery tickets and payouts must pass through the Unified State Register of Bets and Players, a central system kept by NAPP. Under Resolution No. 814, players must be identified remotely, using biometric passport or ID-card data, photo or video verification and a confirmed telephone number. NAPP may set monthly limits on the amounts players deposit, according to SBC Eurasia (July 2025).
Unlicensed and offshore operators
Operators without a NAPP licence, including foreign websites, have no lawful route to Uzbek players. NAPP Order No. 14 provides for fines on foreign legal entities that offer unlicensed services to Uzbek residents: 25,000 BCU for organising internet games, lotteries or betting without a licence, 15,000 BCU for breaches of anti-money-laundering or personal data rules, and 10,000 BCU for accepting funds for illegal games or lottery tickets. Gazeta.uz put the largest of these at about 10.3 billion som in July 2025. Licensed operators face fines of 0.1% to 1% of the minimum charter capital, depending on the breach. Half of each fine goes to the state budget and half to NAPP.
Website blocking is also used. Access to illegal betting sites was already being restricted in 2021 (Kun.uz). In the first half of 2026, according to OOH Mag (August 2026), the Committee for the Development of Competition and Protection of Consumer Rights carried out 165 monitoring actions, recorded 82 cases of prohibited gambling advertising and blocked more than 50 websites. No published list of blocked domains was found.
Advertising
Article 46 of the Law on Advertising (Law ZRU-776 of 7 June 2022) governs advertising of lotteries and games based on risk. Commentators, including the Uzbekistan Law Blog and OOH Mag, read it as prohibiting the advertising of gambling. Although Decree UP-68 called for amendments to the advertising law, OOH Mag reported in August 2026 that the prohibition still applied to licensed operators across outdoor, digital and online channels. According to Spot.uz, the competition authority opened cases against two bloggers in February 2026 for promoting bookmakers. NAPP Order No. 14 also allows a fine of 10,000 BCU on foreign entities for advertising violations.
Position of players
Players may lawfully gamble with NAPP licensees if they are 18 or over, pass identification and are not on the register of excluded persons. The decree allows both residents and non-residents to take part. The government has indicated that further groups will be kept out: a NAPP official told UzNews in March 2025 that the system would not allow people with low incomes or those on social-assistance registers to play, and that NAPP staff and law-enforcement officers were barred. The legal instrument behind the income-based restriction was not identified.
Taking part in unlicensed gambling remains an administrative offence. In the 2007 wording, Article 191 of the Code of Administrative Responsibility punishes “unlawful participation in gambling and other games based on risk” with a fine of three to five minimum wages and confiscation of the stakes and winnings, with higher fines for repeat offences within a year. The 2022 draft law would have raised the fine for players to up to ten base calculation units (Gazeta.uz). The current wording and amounts could not be verified on the official portal. No figures on prosecutions of players using offshore sites since 2025 were found. Under Article 983 of the Civil Code, as summarised by the Uzbekistan Law Blog, claims arising from gambling are not protected by the courts, which limits a player’s legal remedies against an unlicensed operator.
Taxation
Operators
Point 3 of Decree UP-68 sets a special regime. Legal entities organising lotteries, internet games or bookmaking pay turnover tax at 4% on their total revenue less all winnings paid and stakes returned. In practice, this is a tax on gross gaming revenue (GGR), meaning stakes minus winnings. In its original wording the regime applied for five years from 1 January 2025 (Gazeta.uz, April 2024). Decree UP-95 of 19 May 2026 rewrote point 3 so that the regime is established “as an experiment from 1 July 2026 for a three-year term”, and required NAPP and the tax authorities to submit a draft law on permanent taxation of the sector by 1 January 2027. Licence state duties are payable in addition.
Players
Under the same point of the decree, individuals’ winnings from lotteries, internet games and betting organised under NAPP licences are exempt from personal income tax. Winnings from unlicensed operators fall outside this exemption, but no guidance on their tax treatment was found.
Consumer protection and responsible gambling
Responsible-gambling measures in Uzbekistan are built into the licensing rules rather than run by an independent body. The main elements in Resolution No. 814 are:
- Age limit: participation and payments by persons under 18 are prohibited, and serving minors carries a fine of 0.8% of the minimum charter capital (1% if repeated) under NAPP Order No. 14.
- Register of persons with gambling dependency: NAPP keeps a list of persons barred from gambling. An individual can apply to be included for a period of six months to five years. Family members can apply to a court for a five-year exclusion.
- Central control: because every deposit and payout passes through the Unified State Register of Bets and Players, an exclusion applies to all licensed operators at once.
No national gambling helpline or specialist treatment service dedicated to gambling disorder could be identified in the sources reviewed. General guidance is available in our responsible gambling guide.
Recent and upcoming developments
- June–October 2025: NAPP Order No. 14 on fines adopted on 25 June 2025 and in force from 9 October 2025 (Lex.uz).
- March 2026: NAPP said it had received no formal licence applications and that the player register was in its final stage of implementation (Spot.uz).
- May 2026: Decree UP-95 recast the 4% tax regime as a three-year experiment from 1 July 2026 and set 1 January 2027 as the deadline for a draft tax law (Lex.uz).
- July–August 2026: first four licences granted to two companies, and Gaming Laboratories International approved as a testing laboratory (Yogonet).
Two questions remain open. First, it is not settled whether the advertising ban will be relaxed for licensed operators. Second, there have been reports of a land-based gaming zone for foreigners only. A market review by the B2B supplier Slotegrator describes a plan for a resort complex with gambling halls at Muynak, on the dried bed of the Aral Sea in Karakalpakstan, intended exclusively for foreign visitors. That review cites no legal act, and no decree or resolution creating a casino zone could be found. Casinos therefore remain prohibited under current law.
Casino listings for players in Uzbekistan
The listings below are generated automatically from our casino database. They do not show that an operator holds a licence from the National Agency of Perspective Projects. Online games of chance may lawfully be offered to people in Uzbekistan only by Uzbek resident companies licensed by NAPP and connected to the Unified State Register of Bets and Players; offshore operators cannot obtain that licence, so the listings must not be read as an indication that playing with them is lawful.
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Sources and further reading
- President of the Republic of Uzbekistan, Decree No. UP-68 of 19.04.2024 “On measures to improve the regulation of the organisation and conduct of lotteries and games based on risk” (Lex.uz) (accessed 6 October 2026).
- President of the Republic of Uzbekistan, Decree No. UP-95 of 19.05.2026 on the institutional improvement of tax authorities (Lex.uz) (accessed 6 October 2026).
- Cabinet of Ministers of the Republic of Uzbekistan, Resolution No. 814 of 06.12.2024 on measures to implement Decree UP-68 (Lex.uz) (accessed 6 October 2026).
- Lex.uz, Licensing requirements for bookmaking activity (legal explanation) (accessed 6 October 2026).
- Republic of Uzbekistan, Law No. ZRU-109 of 14.09.2007 amending legislative acts in connection with the organisation and conduct of gambling and other games based on risk (Lex.uz) (accessed 6 October 2026).
- National Agency of Perspective Projects, Order No. 14 of 25.06.2025 (reg. No. 3643) on fines for organisers of internet games, lotteries and bookmaking and foreign entities (Lex.uz) (accessed 6 October 2026).
- Cabinet of Ministers of the Republic of Uzbekistan, Resolution No. 396 of 15.11.2002 on improving the organisation of money and prize lotteries (Lex.uz) (accessed 6 October 2026).
- Republic of Uzbekistan, Law No. ZRU-776 of 07.06.2022 “On Advertising” (Lex.uz) (accessed 6 October 2026).
- Gazeta.uz, Букмекерскую деятельность разрешили в Узбекистане с 2025 года (2024).
- Gazeta.uz, Утверждены требования для организации азартных игр и ставок в Узбекистане. Главное (2024).
- Gazeta.uz, Сенат одобрил закон о легализации букмекеров и азартных игр в Узбекистане (2025).
- Gazeta.uz, Штрафы за нарушения в сфере азартных игр утверждены в Узбекистане (2025).
- Gazeta.uz, За участие в азартных онлайн-играх предлагается штрафовать (2022).
- Kun.uz, Заниматься букмекерской деятельностью и рекламировать её противозаконно (2021).
- UzNews, В Узбекистане не выдали ни одной лицензии букмекерам после легализации (2025).
- Spot.uz, «Заявлений на получение лицензии не было, но интерес есть» — НАПП об азартных играх (2026).
- Azizov & Partners, Gambling, lotteries and betting in the Republic of Uzbekistan (2025).
- A. Janturaev, Uzbekistan Law Blog, The Legalization of Gambling in Uzbekistan: A Critical Analysis (2024).
- Gambling Insider, Uzbekistan approves licensing framework for online gambling and lotteries (2024).
- SBC Eurasia, В Узбекистане утвердили штрафы за нарушения в сфере азартных игр (2025).
- Yogonet, GLI gains approval to certify gaming products for Uzbekistan’s regulated market (2026).
- OOH Mag, Как легализация букмекерского рынка меняет рекламную индустрию Узбекистана (2026).
- Slotegrator, Online Gambling in Uzbekistan: 2026 Market Review (commercial B2B source) (accessed 6 October 2026).
