Legal casino gambling age in EgyptEgypt combines a general criminal prohibition of gambling with a narrow exception for tourism. The Penal Code punishes anyone who keeps premises for games of chance or sells lottery tickets without government permission. The Hotel and Tourism Establishments Law of 2022, like the 1973 law it replaced, allows gambling games in licensed tourist establishments, but only for people who are not Egyptian nationals. Casinos therefore operate in a number of hotels in Cairo and resort cities under the supervision of the Minister of Tourism, while Egyptian citizens are barred from playing in them. There is no licence of any kind for online casinos or online betting. Since 2024 the authorities have prosecuted local agents of offshore betting apps, frozen the e-wallets used to pay them and blocked apps, and parliament is considering amendments to the Cybercrime Law that would create specific online betting offences.
Key points
- Articles 352 and 353 of the Penal Code (Law No. 58 of 1937) punish the keeping of premises open to the public for games of chance, and the sale of lottery tickets without government permission, with imprisonment, a fine and confiscation.
- Article 24 of Law No. 8 of 2022 on Hotel and Tourism Establishments provides that gambling games may be practised in establishments “only by non-Egyptians”, under conditions set by decree of the Minister of Tourism, who may charge a fee of up to half of gambling revenue.
- Egyptian law contains no licensing route for online casinos, online poker or online sports betting. Offshore sites and apps are targeted through criminal investigations, blocking and the freezing of payment channels.
- In October 2024 the Public Prosecution ordered the detention of agents of the 1xBet app and the suspension of phone lines and e-wallets used to move stakes. In February 2026 a committee chair said about 80% of identified betting apps were being targeted for blocking.
- Draft amendments to Cybercrime Law No. 175 of 2018 that would criminalise online betting expressly had not been enacted by the date of review. We found no national self-exclusion scheme or gambling-specific helpline.
Last reviewed: 6 October 2026.
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Historical development
Casino gambling in modern Egypt has long been tied to tourism and to the exclusion of Egyptian citizens. According to a 2022 feature in Masr 360, a law of 1941 under King Farouk prohibited gambling games and casino licences in hotels. After the 1952 revolution, gambling clubs were authorised in tourist establishments but restricted to foreigners. The same article states that the 1973 hotel law imposed a levy of 50% on gambling revenue, and that ministerial decisions in 1987 and 2005 channelled casino revenue into the Tourism Fund. We could not read these earlier instruments ourselves, so these dates rest on that secondary account.
The modern structure was set by Law No. 1 of 1973 on hotel and tourism establishments. As summarised by Sada El Balad (July 2021), that law provided that gambling may not be practised in hotel and tourist establishments “except by non-Egyptians”, with play in foreign currency, and punished violations with up to six months’ imprisonment or a fine and closure of the establishment. Lotteries were governed separately: Law No. 10 of 1905 was replaced by Law No. 93 of 1973 on the lottery system, according to the explanatory memorandum to the 1973 law. In January 2011 a committee of the People’s Assembly approved a bill to replace the lottery law with a law on competitions, reportedly in order to align it with Islamic Sharia (Maspero). Parliament was dissolved weeks later, and we found no evidence that the bill was enacted.
The 1973 tourism law remained in force until 2022, when it was repealed and replaced by Law No. 8 of 2022, which kept the rule that only non-Egyptians may gamble.
Legal framework
The Penal Code
The basic criminal rules are in the Penal Code, Law No. 58 of 1937, in the chapter on games of chance and lotteries. As quoted by the Egyptian Lawyers Syndicate (January 2021):
- Article 352 provides that anyone who prepares a place for games of chance (qimar) and makes it ready for the public to enter, together with the cashiers of the premises, is punished by imprisonment and a fine not exceeding EGP 1,000. All money and goods found in the premises are confiscated.
- Article 353 applies the same penalties to anyone who offers for sale anything in the draw known as a lottery without government permission, with confiscation of the money and items involved.
The structure of these offences matters for players. Article 352 targets the person who organises and opens a gambling place to the public, and its staff. It does not, in the wording quoted, make the act of playing an offence in itself. Egypt’s Court of Cassation has described gambling as games in which gain depends more on chance than on skill, according to Masr 360. In October 2024 Sada El Balad noted that the Penal Code’s fraud provisions (Articles 336 to 339) could also apply to online betting networks.
Hotel and Tourism Establishments Law No. 8 of 2022
Law No. 8 of 2022 was issued on 6 March 2022 and published in the Official Gazette (issue 9, repeated). It repealed Law No. 1 of 1973 and Law No. 1 of 1992 on tourist goods, according to the text published by the Egyptian Lawyers Syndicate. Article 1 defines the “competent minister” as the minister responsible for tourism. The key provisions on gambling are:
- Article 24. “Gambling games may not be practised in establishments except by non-Egyptians, in accordance with the conditions and controls issued by decision of the competent minister.” The minister’s decision determines which establishments may offer gambling and sets a fee that may not exceed half of gambling revenue (Youm7, February 2023; Akhbar El Yom, March 2022).
- Article 38. A breach of Article 24 is punishable by a fine of EGP 50,000 to 500,000. For a repeat offence, the penalty is imprisonment of six months to one year and double the fine, or one of these penalties.
- Article 43(6). The authorities may close an establishment administratively, without prior warning, for gambling in violation of the law.
The ban on Egyptian nationals therefore has a direct statutory basis, not merely an administrative one. Press reports describe the practice of checking passports at casino entrances. Youm7 reported in 2017 that entry required a foreign passport and that Egyptians who also hold another nationality could enter on their foreign passport. We did not find this point in the text of the 2022 law, and it should be treated as reported practice.
Public premises and lotteries
Gambling elsewhere is also restricted by licensing law for cafés, shops and other public premises. Article 24(7) of the Public Premises Law, Law No. 154 of 2019, lists gambling in violation of the law among the grounds for administrative closure of a licensed premises (Law Hub text). Lotteries are governed by Law No. 93 of 1973, which made the Ministry of Social Affairs (now the Ministry of Social Solidarity) the supervising authority. It allowed the fund for aiding private associations to issue lottery tickets, allowed other bodies to run lotteries by ministerial licence for charitable purposes, and required a ministry representative to attend draws (explanatory memorandum). We did not find a current official page describing an active national or charitable lottery, so we do not describe one here.
Constitutional and religious context
Article 2 of the Constitution of 2014, as amended in 2019, states that Islam is the religion of the state and that “the principles of Islamic Sharia are the principal source of legislation”. Article 64 provides that freedom of belief is absolute. Islamic teaching treats gambling (maysir or qimar) as prohibited, and the Al-Azhar International Fatwa Centre has described it as a major sin, as reported by El Watan (June 2021). This background helps explain the policy choice of the 1973 and 2022 laws: gambling is tolerated as a tourism service for foreign visitors and excluded for citizens.
Regulator and licensing model
Egypt has no gambling regulator in the sense of an independent authority that licenses and supervises all forms of gambling. Its model is best described as prohibition with a limited tourism exception. The Ministry of Tourism authorises and supervises casinos under Law No. 8 of 2022. Lotteries fall under the Ministry of Social Solidarity under Law No. 93 of 1973. Enforcement against unlawful gambling lies with the police and the Public Prosecution. Online matters involve the National Telecom Regulatory Authority (NTRA) and, for content, the Supreme Council for Media Regulation.
Casinos are located in large hotels. A Youm7 report of April 2017 counted 20 operating casinos, with 257 slot machines and 135 gaming tables in the Cairo casinos, and quoted Nagy Orayan, a former board member of the Chamber of Hotel Establishments (Youm7). A 2022 feature by Masr 360 gave a figure of about 30 casinos, concentrated in Cairo, Sharm El Sheikh and Taba. We found no official, published list of licensed casinos, so neither figure can be confirmed against a register. Licence transfers under Article 25 of the 2022 law carry a fee of EGP 10,000 to 2 million, according to Youm7.
Online gambling: status and enforcement
No Egyptian law provides for the licensing of online casinos, online poker or online sports betting. The 2022 tourism law permits gambling only in physical establishments and only for foreigners. In September 2026 iGaming Business described Egypt as having no licensing framework for online betting and an approach focused on criminal enforcement. Offering online casino games to people in Egypt is therefore not authorised. Offshore sports betting apps nonetheless became widely used. In May 2026 Ahmed Badawi, chair of the House Communications and Information Technology Committee, said accounts on betting apps had exceeded 20 million, concentrated in the Delta and Upper Egypt (Youm7). This is a politician’s estimate, not an official statistic.
Prosecutions of agents and payment channels
The main enforcement step so far came in October 2024. On 16 October 2024 Prosecutor General Mohamed Shawky ordered the detention of defendants accused of acting as intermediaries for betting conducted through electronic applications “without obtaining a licence”, including the 1xBet app. According to the prosecution’s account reported by Al Dostor and Cairo 24, the defendants created and managed accounts on betting websites as agents, promoted them online, used SIM cards linked to mobile e-wallets to receive and transfer stakes, and concealed the funds by buying cryptocurrency. The prosecution instructed the NTRA to suspend the phone lines and e-wallets used. Youm7 reported on 19 October 2024 that the NTRA had suspended the lines and wallets and acted against the 1xBet application. We did not find a reported verdict in this case.
Blocking
Article 7 of the Anti-Cybercrime Law, Law No. 175 of 2018, allows the competent investigating authority to order the blocking of a website whose content constitutes a crime and threatens national security or the national economy. The order must be put before the competent court within 24 hours, and the court must rule within 72 hours (Masaar, text of Article 7). Separately, in August 2024 a lawyer asked the Cairo Administrative Court to order the blocking of the 1xBet app and website and other betting platforms. The case was adjourned to 12 January 2025 so that the Egyptian Football Association, which the claimant said oversees football advertising, could be joined (Al Dostor). We did not find a report of the outcome.
In February 2026 Ahmed Badawi announced that the government would soon block betting apps such as 1xBet and that “no blocked gambling apps will be allowed to return” (Egypt Independent, 8 February 2026). He also said platforms operating in Egypt would need an accredited legal representative. According to Focus Gaming News and iGaming Business (June 2026), he stated in February that about 80% of betting apps identified in technical assessments were being targeted for blocking by the NTRA and the Supreme Council for Media Regulation. iGaming Business also reported that 1xBet had been removed from the main app stores in Egypt in September 2024, with similar action against another offshore brand in early 2026. These figures come from parliamentary statements reported in the press; we found no published blocklist.
Payments and advertising
Payment enforcement has so far taken the form of freezing the mobile wallets and phone lines used by agents, ordered in individual criminal cases. We found no published Central Bank of Egypt rule that specifically addresses gambling transactions. Nor did we find a specific statutory code on gambling advertising. The promotion of unauthorised betting is, however, treated as part of the criminal conduct in the 2024 prosecution, and the 2025 private member’s bill would make promoting online betting a separate offence.
Position of players
The position differs for land-based and online gambling. In casinos, the law is clear: Article 24 of Law No. 8 of 2022 confines gambling to non-Egyptians. The penalties in Article 38 and the closure power in Article 43 are framed around the establishment, which must refuse Egyptian nationals. Foreign visitors may play lawfully in a licensed casino.
For online play, the sources we reviewed do not show a provision that expressly makes it an offence for an individual to place bets with a foreign website. Article 352 of the Penal Code is aimed at those who keep gambling premises. The October 2024 prosecution was directed at agents and intermediaries, not at ordinary customers, and we found no reported prosecution or fine of a player for betting online. That may change. A SiGMA report on the February 2026 announcements referred to penalties for users of banned apps, but the text of the January 2025 bill reported by Parlmany contains no penalty for players, and the government’s own amendments had not been published by the date of review. Players who use offshore sites have no Egyptian authority to complain to and no legal means of recovering unpaid winnings, and their payment channels can be frozen in investigations against agents.
We found no published minimum age for casino entry or for lotteries in the sources reviewed. Because Egyptian nationals of any age are excluded from casinos, the practical age rule for foreign guests is set by each casino’s own policy.
Taxation
The main charge on casinos is the fee set under Article 24 of Law No. 8 of 2022, which may not exceed half of gambling revenue. Under the earlier 1973 regime, Youm7 reported in 2017 that the state took 50% of gaming revenue, split between the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Tourism, and that the Ministry of Finance had imposed an additional 20% tax in 2013. The same report said casinos paid about USD 5 million a month into the Tourism Fund in 2017, down from about USD 7 million a month in 2010. These are press figures attributed to officials; we found no published official casino revenue statistics.
We could not verify the income tax treatment of gambling or lottery winnings for individuals from a primary source during our review.
Consumer protection and responsible gambling
Egypt has no national self-exclusion register and no helpline dedicated to gambling, as far as we could establish. The main legal protection is structural: citizens are excluded from casinos altogether, and the state’s response to online betting is enforcement rather than regulated harm-minimisation tools such as deposit limits.
General mental health and addiction services are available. The General Secretariat of Mental Health and Addiction Treatment runs a confidential hotline on 16328 or 08008880700, offering consultations on mental disorders and addiction, and Al-Azhar runs a psychological support line on 19906 (Akhbar El Yom, April 2026). In February 2026 the Ministry of Health opened weekly clinics for excessive internet and electronic gaming use in six psychiatric hospitals, including Abbasia, Khanka and Maamoura (Mobtada). These services are not specific to gambling. The January 2025 bill would direct fines collected under it to the Fund for Combating and Treating Addiction, for treating betting addiction (Parlmany). Our responsible gambling guide explains how to set limits and recognise warning signs.
Recent and upcoming developments
- January 2025. MP Martha Mahrous, deputy chair of the Communications Committee, published a bill to criminalise electronic betting. It proposed two to five years’ imprisonment and fines of EGP 1 to 5 million for agents and promoters, two to five years and EGP 5 to 10 million for operators, and at least six months’ imprisonment and a fine of EGP 50,000 to 200,000, or either penalty, for payment facilitators (Parlmany; iGaming Business).
- February 2026. Committee chair Ahmed Badawi announced blocking of betting apps and new legislation (Egypt Independent). According to Masaar, parliament began discussing amendments to the Cybercrime Law that month.
- May 2026. Badawi said the government would submit amendments to Law No. 175 of 2018 after Eid al-Adha, with a legal definition of electronic betting and penalties including imprisonment (Youm7, 14 May; Youm7, 20 May). Trade press reported that life imprisonment was discussed for the most serious cases involving organised crime. In June 2026 the digital rights group Masaar argued that amending the Cybercrime Law was the wrong vehicle and that website blocking is imprecise and may push users towards less regulated alternatives.
- Status at review. In late June 2026 iGaming Business reported that no government draft had reached parliament’s agenda, and in September 2026 it reported that parliament had adjourned on 22 July without passing betting legislation. We found no record of enactment by 6 October 2026. Readers should check for developments when parliament’s new session begins.
Casino listings for players in Egypt
The listings below are generated automatically from our casino database. They do not show that an operator is licensed in Egypt. Egyptian law provides no licence for online casinos or online betting, offering such games to people in Egypt is not authorised, and Egyptian nationals may not gamble even in the country’s licensed hotel casinos under Law No. 8 of 2022. The listings must not be read as an indication that playing with any listed operator is lawful in Egypt.
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Sources and further reading
- Arab Republic of Egypt, Law No. 8 of 2022 issuing the Hotel and Tourism Establishments Law (text published by the Egyptian Lawyers Syndicate; accessed 6 October 2026).
- Egyptian Lawyers Syndicate, Penalties for gambling and lotteries (Penal Code, Articles 352 and 353) (2021).
- Constitute Project, Egypt’s Constitution of 2014 with Amendments through 2019 (accessed 6 October 2026).
- Law Hub, Public Premises Law (Law No. 154 of 2019) (accessed 6 October 2026).
- Masaar, Article 7 of the Anti-Cybercrime Law No. 175 of 2018 (accessed 6 October 2026).
- Riwaq al-Jamal, Explanatory memorandum to Law No. 93 of 1973 on the lottery system (2022).
- Maspero, People’s Assembly committee approves replacing the lottery law with a competitions law (2011).
- Sada El Balad, Penalties for gambling under the law, and the single exception (2021).
- Youm7, Ban on gambling for Egyptians in tourist establishments (2023).
- Akhbar El Yom, Full details of the Hotel and Tourism Establishments Law (2022).
- Youm7, Casinos pump USD 5 million a month into the Tourism Fund; 20 casinos operate in Egypt (2017).
- Masr 360, Who gambles in Egypt? (2022).
- El Watan, Fine and confiscation: the penalty for playing for money in cafés (2021).
- Al Dostor, Prosecutor General orders detention of defendants in electronic betting and cryptocurrency case (2024).
- Cairo 24, Public Prosecution orders detention of 1xBet intermediaries and suspension of e-wallets (2024).
- Youm7, NTRA suspends electronic betting applications in Egypt (2024).
- Sada El Balad, Electronic betting under the law (2024).
- Al Dostor, Lawsuit to block gambling sites adjourned to January (2024).
- Parlmany, Full text of a bill to criminalise electronic betting (2025).
- Egypt Independent, Egypt to shut down online gambling apps: MP (2026).
- Youm7, A law to confront online betting soon before parliament (2026).
- Youm7, New legislation after Eid al-Adha; parliament warns of electronic gambling (2026).
- Masaar, Amending the Cybercrime Law is not the answer: a legislative position paper (2026).
- iGaming Business, Egypt parliament moves to criminalise online betting (2026).
- iGaming Business, Lottomatica/Cirsa tie-up shines spotlight on North Africa’s online betting licensing gap (2026).
- Focus Gaming News, Egypt moves to criminalise online betting apps under cybercrime reforms (2026).
- Akhbar El Yom, Free hotlines for psychological support and addiction treatment (2026).
- SiGMA, Egypt blocks online betting apps (2026).
- Mobtada, Ministry of Health launches clinics for internet and electronic gaming addiction (2026).
