Legal casino gambling age in Samoa
Samoa permits a narrow range of gambling under two statutes and prohibits everything else. Casino gaming is lawful only inside licensed hotel-casino complexes, and only foreign passport holders who are staying at a hotel may take part; Samoan citizens travelling on a Samoan passport are excluded. Lotteries, bingo, totalisator betting and gaming offered through telephones and other telecommunication devices require a licence, and a separate interactive gaming licence covers online games and online sports betting. A single statutory body, the Gambling Control Authority, regulates the sector and also runs the national lottery. This guide sets out how the framework developed, what the legislation says, how online gambling is treated, the position of players, taxation and the limited consumer-protection tools available.
Key points
- The Casino and Gambling Control Act 2010 (Act No. 10 of 2010) created the Gambling Control Authority and the casino licensing regime; the Gaming Control Act 2017 (Act No. 23 of 2017) regulates lotteries, bingo, totalisator betting and telecommunications gaming.
- Under section 7 of the Gaming Control Act 2017, the only lawful forms of gambling are listed categories, and “all other forms of gambling are prohibited and illegal”.
- Only a foreign passport holder who is a residential guest of a hotel may enter and gamble in a casino (section 24(3) of the 2010 Act). The minimum gambling age is 21.
- Online games and online sports betting are lawful only under an interactive gaming licence issued under section 88A of the 2010 Act; no public register of such licences could be found.
- Casino licensees pay a commission of 15% of monthly gross profit, or another rate set by the Authority. No national self-exclusion scheme or gambling helpline could be identified.
Last reviewed: 13 October 2026.
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Historical development
Before 2010, Samoan gambling law consisted of a handful of older statutes: the Gaming Act 1978, the National Lotteries Act 1978 and the Betting (Totalisator Agency) Act 1990. The last of these created the Totalisator Agency Board (TAB), which ran betting and lottery products. These Acts are listed as repealed by section 76 of the Gaming Control Act 2017, which replaced them from 2018.
Casinos were introduced by the Casino and Gambling Control Act 2010. Radio New Zealand reported that the bill cleared its final parliamentary stage with provision for two casino licences, attached to hotels, and with gambling restricted to holders of foreign passports. An opposition member argued that the two-licence limit would concentrate tourist spending in two hotels, while the chair of the reviewing committee said casinos should be introduced “in a measured way” (RNZ, casino bill passes). The proposal drew sustained opposition from churches. RNZ reported that the chair of the National Council of Churches had told the Samoa Observer he feared for the country once casinos opened, and summarised his concern as casinos driving people further into poverty (RNZ, church leaders on casinos). In July 2012 the then Prime Minister, Tuilaepa Sa’ilele Malielegaoi, said that only foreign passport holders would be admitted, while accepting that residents holding dual citizenship could not be stopped (RNZ, 10 July 2012).
Although the Act received assent on 19 October 2010, the consolidated text on PacLII records its commencement as 8 March 2013. The Authority later announced two licences on Upolu: one for a resort near Faleolo airport, which was given six months to open a casino with 12 tables and up to 85 gaming machines, and one for a proposed 500-room resort to be developed by a Chinese tourism group (Samoa News, Gambling Authority positive about casino impact). Samoa’s first casino opened at Mulifanua, on the north-west coast of Upolu, with an official opening on Saturday 4 October (2014), 100 slot machines and ten tables (Samoa News, official opening report). A second, larger venue in Apia was announced at the time; this guide could not confirm from official sources whether it has since opened.
Legal framework
Casino and Gambling Control Act 2010
The Casino and Gambling Control Act 2010 is the principal statute. It establishes the Gambling Control Authority (Part 2), sets out casino licensing and operation (Part 3), and, since amendments in 2015 and 2018, provides for interactive gaming. The revision notes to the 2018 consolidation record three amending Acts: the Casino and Gambling Control Amendment Act 2015 (No. 14), which inserted section 88A on interactive gaming; an amending Act of 2017 (No. 14); and the Casino and Gambling Control Amendment Act 2018 (No. 7), which inserted sections 88B (commission on interactive gaming), 88C (tax exemption), 89A (forms and fees) and 89B (immunities). The Act is administered by the Ministry of the Prime Minister and Cabinet according to those notes.
Key provisions include:
- Number of licences: Cabinet decides how many casino licences to issue, but “there shall not be more than 2 licences for the first 10 years” after the Act came into operation (section 23(1)). Each licence authorises one casino, with a second venue possible on approval and payment of an additional fee.
- Location: casino gaming may take place only in the areas of a hotel-casino complex identified in the licence (section 24(1)), and the Authority may set requirements on location, size, style and associated hotel development.
- Admission: only a “foreign passport holder who is a residential guest” of the hotel-casino complex or of another hotel may enter and take part in casino gaming (section 24(3)). Breach is an offence carrying a fine of up to 250 penalty units, imprisonment of up to three years, or both (section 24(5)).
- Age: persons under 21 may not enter the gaming area during operating hours, and a licensee that knowingly lets them play commits an offence (sections 49 and 57).
- Exclusion: the Authority may direct a licensee to exclude a person it reasonably believes to be involved in swindling, cheating or other malpractice (section 52).
A penalty unit is a statutory multiplier used to express fines. Under section 4 of the Fines (Review and Amendment) Act 1998, one penalty unit equals SAT 100, so 250 penalty units corresponds to a maximum fine of SAT 25,000.
Gaming Control Act 2017
The Gaming Control Act 2017 (Act No. 23 of 2017) was assented to on 21 December 2017 and, according to the official consolidation, commenced on 1 May 2018. Its objectives include controlling the growth of gaming and gambling, preventing and minimising harm “including problem gambling”, and ensuring that money from gambling “is applied to community purposes”. The 2022 consolidation records no later amending Acts.
Section 7(1) lists the permissible forms of gambling: gaming for an authorised (charitable, religious, community or club) purpose, private gambling, casino gambling under the 2010 Act, and interactive gaming, including online sports betting, licensed under the 2010 Act. Section 7(2) provides that “all other forms of gambling are prohibited and illegal”, and section 7(3) expressly prohibits bookmaking, subject to exceptions that include licensed online sports betting. Breach is punishable by a fine of up to 100 penalty units, imprisonment of up to three years, or both. Section 8 sets a general minimum gambling age of 21.
The Act then establishes licensing regimes for totalisator betting (sections 11 to 22), a national lotto run by the Authority (sections 23 to 25), lotteries (sections 26 to 34), bingo (sections 35 to 42), sales promotion schemes (sections 43 to 47) and gaming through telecommunication devices (Part 9, sections 48 to 54). It also creates offences of operating a gaming house and of gaming in a public place.
Regulator and licensing model
Samoa uses a restricted licensing model: a small number of activities are permitted under licence, and all others are prohibited. The regulator is the Gambling Control Authority (sometimes described in the press as the Casino and Gambling Control Authority), a body corporate established by section 5 of the 2010 Act. The Ministry for Public Enterprises classifies it as a Public Beneficial Body and describes its purpose as licensing casinos, consolidating gambling regulation under one body and controlling “the growth of gaming and gambling in Samoa” (Ministry for Public Enterprises, Gambling Control Authority).
Under section 9 of the 2010 Act, the board is appointed by the Head of State on Cabinet’s advice and is meant to include the Attorney General, the Chief Executive Officer of the Ministry of Finance, a lawyer, nominees of the Samoa National Council of Churches and of the Samoa Chamber of Commerce and Industry, and representatives for women and children and for sport. A chief executive officer is appointed for up to three years. Section 92 provided that the TAB would exercise the Authority’s functions on commencement until the Head of State, on Cabinet’s advice, decided otherwise.
The Authority’s licensing functions span:
- casino licences, capped at two for the first ten years after commencement;
- interactive gaming licences under section 88A of the 2010 Act;
- totalisator, lottery, bingo, sales promotion and telecommunications gaming licences under the Gaming Control Act 2017, which require a prior “authorised purpose statement” under section 10.
The Authority is both regulator and operator. According to its website, it offers the Samoa National Lotto, a Hit 3 draw and Sports Lotto products. Its January 2026 recruitment pack for a new chief executive refers to the national lottery agreement with an India-based technology supplier and lists the collection of fees, commissions and levies among the role’s duties (Ministry for Public Enterprises, CEO information pack, January 2026). After the 2017 Act took effect, the Authority announced that gaming permits previously issued by the Ministry of Police had ceased and that lotteries, raffles, bingo and promotional schemes needed its licence (Samoa Observer, 24 September 2018).
Licence fees are prescribed by regulation. Under section 89A of the 2010 Act, proposed fees must be put forward by the Authority and approved by the National Revenue Board. No published fee schedule or list of licensees was found on the Authority’s website at the time of review.
Online gambling
Online gambling in Samoa is not simply prohibited: the law provides a licensing route. Section 88A of the 2010 Act, inserted in 2015, allows a person to apply to the Authority’s chief executive officer for an interactive gaming licence to conduct interactive gaming, provide related services or supply related products. A game is “interactive” if a prize can be won, the player takes part and pays by means of a telecommunication device, and the outcome depends wholly or partly on chance or skill. Betting on a race, sporting event or other event by telecommunication device is treated as interactive gaming. Conducting interactive gaming without a licence carries a fine of up to 500 penalty units (SAT 50,000) under section 88A(7).
Licensees pay commission on gross profit at a rate set by the Authority and stated in each licence (section 88B). The regulation-making power in section 89 extends to categories of interactive gaming licence, their validity and “participant restrictions”. The statute itself does not say whether an interactive licensee may accept players located in Samoa, and no regulations on that point could be located.
Separately, Part 9 of the Gaming Control Act 2017 requires gaming and gambling conducted through telecommunication devices to be licensed. Service providers must offer an opt-out from promotions, and unlicensed telecommunications gaming carries a fine of up to 500 penalty units for a company. When the bill was tabled, the minister explained that it covered games offered by telecommunications service providers (Samoa Observer, 16 November 2017).
Offshore operators and enforcement
Because section 7 of the 2017 Act makes all non-listed gambling illegal, an offshore online casino without a Samoan interactive gaming licence falls outside the permitted categories. However, no public register of interactive gaming licences, no list of unlicensed websites and no internet service provider (ISP) blocking or payment-blocking programme could be identified in official sources. The recorded enforcement activity is local: in 2018 the Authority publicly warned that an unlicensed “bonus game” operator was acting illegally and was under investigation (Samoa Observer, 2018). No specific statutory rules on gambling advertising, beyond the telecommunications opt-out, were found.
Position of players
The clearest player-facing rule concerns casinos. Section 24(3) of the 2010 Act limits casino entry and play to foreign passport holders who are hotel residents, and breach of that subsection is an offence. In practice, Samoans who also hold a foreign passport may play as foreigners. Press reports of the 2014 opening noted that Samoan passport holders with resident status abroad receive no exception, and that local residents were admitted on opening night only (Samoa News, 2014). In 2017 the Prime Minister repeated that the law is clear that Samoan passport holders may not gamble in the casino, while acknowledging that Samoans with foreign passports cannot be stopped (Samoa Observer, 2017).
For other gambling, the 2017 Act prohibits under-21s from gambling and makes it an offence to be found gaming or gambling in a public place (fine of up to 20 penalty units). Section 7 states that all non-listed forms of gambling are “prohibited and illegal” and attaches a penalty to breach, but the provision is framed around forms of gambling rather than distinguishing clearly between organisers and participants. This guide found no reported prosecution of an individual for playing at an overseas online casino, and no official guidance addressing that situation. Residents using unlicensed foreign websites have no recourse to the Authority if a dispute arises.
Taxation
Samoa’s gambling taxation is built on commissions payable to the Authority rather than a separate gambling tax statute.
- Casinos: under section 37 of the 2010 Act, a casino licensee pays commission on monthly gross profit at 15% “or such other rate as the Authority shall determine”, into a fund designated by the Authority. Gross profit means the amount wagered less winnings paid out, comparable to gross gaming revenue (GGR).
- Interactive gaming: commission is set licence by licence as a percentage of gross profit and is due by the last working day of the following month (section 88B).
- The Authority: its own income is “wholly exempted from income tax” under the Income Tax Act 2012 (section 88C). Section 91 of the 2010 Act also amended section 12 of the Value Added Goods and Services Tax Act 1993 to cover supplies to the Authority and the licensing and commission regime.
For players, section 23(4) of the 2017 Act provides that national lotto prize money is “wholly exempt from income tax”. No source was found that addresses the income-tax treatment of casino or online winnings, and readers should consult the Ministry for Revenue on individual cases. The Authority’s surplus has funded community causes: in February 2021 the Minister of Public Enterprises told Parliament that over five years it had donated about SAT 907,000 to sport, SAT 17,000 to charities and SAT 76,372 to education, and that it had paid the government the first SAT 300,000 of a SAT 984,859.65 dividend (Samoa Observer, 24 February 2021).
Consumer protection and responsible gambling
The statutory safeguards are mainly restrictions on access rather than player-facing tools:
- Minimum age of 21 for all gambling, including casino entry, totalisator betting and telecommunications gaming.
- Casino admission limited to foreign passport holders resident in hotels, a policy defended by the government as protecting families’ wages from gambling (Samoa Observer, 13 March 2017).
- Casino exclusions, which the Authority may direct, but only on grounds of cheating or malpractice; the licensee must keep a list of excluded persons (sections 39 and 52 of the 2010 Act).
- Responsible gambling powers: the Authority may hold hearings and impose licence conditions to promote responsible gambling (sections 63 and 64 of the 2017 Act).
- Promotion opt-out for telecommunications gaming (section 53 of the 2017 Act).
The Gaming Control Act 2017 contains no self-exclusion or third-party exclusion scheme, and no national self-exclusion register or dedicated gambling helpline in Samoa could be identified; an international helpline directory lists none for the country (Find A Helpline, Samoa). People affected by gambling may approach general health and counselling services. General guidance is available in our responsible gambling guide.
Recent and upcoming developments
- Calls to admit locals (2017). In March 2017 several Members of Parliament asked the government to let Samoan passport holders gamble in casinos. The Prime Minister rejected the request and said the law should stay as it is (Samoa Observer, 13 March 2017). An undated RNZ report records a government MP arguing that admitting locals would raise casino revenue (RNZ). No later change to section 24(3) appears in the consolidated Act.
- Lottery fraud and review (2020). In July 2020 eight Authority workers were dismissed over a scam involving sales of Australian lottery tickets, and the Prime Minister suggested a review of the Authority (RNZ via Fiji Times, 15 July 2020).
- Board quorum (2022). In September 2022 Cabinet appointed an interim six-member board after reports that the Authority had operated with only two directors since 2020, below its quorum (Samoa Observer, 19 September 2022).
- Leadership and governance (2026). The Ministry for Public Enterprises sought a new chief executive in January 2026, with reference to a Corporate Plan 2025–2028. As of October 2026 its board page listed four of six seats filled and the chief executive post as vacant (Ministry for Public Enterprises).
- Legislation. No amendment to either statute between 2024 and 2026 could be found in the official consolidations. The ten-year cap on casino licences in section 23(1), counted from the Act’s commencement in 2013, appears to have lapsed in 2023, leaving the number of licences to Cabinet; no announcement of further casino licences was found.
Casino listings for players in Samoa
The listings below are generated automatically from our casino database. They do not show that an operator holds a Samoan interactive gaming licence, and the Gambling Control Authority does not publish a register of such licences. Under the Gaming Control Act 2017, gambling outside the permitted categories is “prohibited and illegal”, so the listings must not be read as an indication that playing with a given site is lawful in Samoa. Readers can contact the Gambling Control Authority to confirm an operator’s status.
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Sources and further reading
- PacLII, Casino and Gambling Control Act 2010 (Act No. 10 of 2010), consolidated to 2020 (accessed 13 October 2026).
- PacLII, Casino and Gambling Control Act 2010, consolidated to 31 December 2018, with revision notes (accessed 13 October 2026).
- PacLII, Gaming Control Act 2017 (Act No. 23 of 2017), official version as at 31 December 2022 (accessed 13 October 2026).
- PacLII, Fines (Review and Amendment) Act 1998, consolidated to 2020 (accessed 13 October 2026).
- Ministry for Public Enterprises, Gambling Control Authority: Board of Directors (accessed 13 October 2026).
- Ministry for Public Enterprises, Chief Executive Officer, Gambling Control Authority: Information Package (2026).
- Gambling Control Authority, Official website (accessed 13 October 2026).
- Radio New Zealand, Samoa PM not worried about effect of casinos on locals (2012).
- Radio New Zealand, Samoa casino legislation passes final stage (accessed 13 October 2026).
- Radio New Zealand, Church leaders warn Samoa government about casinos (accessed 13 October 2026).
- Radio New Zealand, Samoan MP calls for locals to be allowed to gamble in casinos (accessed 13 October 2026).
- Samoa News, Samoa Gambling Authority positive about casino impact (accessed 13 October 2026).
- Samoa News, Casino in Mulifanua, Samoa officially opens (2014).
- Samoa Observer, Bill to regulate gambling, gaming activities tabled (2017).
- Samoa Observer, Stick to bingo, P.M. rejects gambling law change call (2017).
- Samoa Observer, Gambling Control Authority issues warning (2018).
- Samoa Observer, Gambling Control Authority to cease paying dividends to Govt (2021).
- Samoa Observer, Interim Gambling Control Authority Board appointed (2022).
- The Fiji Times (RNZ), Scam prompts Samoan PM’s call for gaming review (2020).
- Find A Helpline, Gambling helplines in Samoa (accessed 13 October 2026).
