Gambling in Mauritania: Laws, Penal Code and Online Betting

Published by Casino News Daily editorial teamReviewed byFilip RadulovicOur editorial approach

Mauritania is an Islamic republic whose constitution describes the precepts of Islam as the only source of law. The country has no licensing system for gambling: there is no gambling regulator, no licensed casino, no licensed online operator and no state lottery or betting company that could be identified in the public record. Gambling is condemned in Islamic law, and the Penal Code of 1983 contains a section on offences relating to gaming houses and lotteries. Online betting and casino sites based abroad are nonetheless reachable by Mauritanian internet users, and in October 2026 the government began work on a draft law intended to strengthen the fight against gambling and betting, particularly on digital platforms. This guide sets out what can be verified about the legal position, explains where the published record is incomplete, and summarises the most recent developments.

Key points

The Constitution of 20 July 1991 declares Mauritania an Islamic republic and states in its preamble that the precepts of Islam are the “only source of law”.
The Penal Code (Ordinance No. 83-162 of 9 July 1983) contains a section on offences against the rules on gaming houses, lotteries and pawnshops. According to Sahara Medias, Article 381 punishes clandestine gambling with two months to two years in prison and a fine. No law authorises or licenses gambling.
There is no gambling regulator, and no Mauritanian licence for online casinos or betting exists. No state lottery or state betting operator could be identified.
No published blocking list or payment-blocking regime aimed at gambling sites could be found.
On 3 October 2026 the press agency APA, citing the official Agence mauritanienne d’information, reported that an interministerial meeting chaired by the Prime Minister had examined a draft law to criminalise gambling- and betting-related practices. The draft is not yet law.

Last reviewed: 13 October 2026.

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Historical development

Mauritania became independent from France on 28 November 1960 and is officially the Islamic Republic of Mauritania. Its population is almost entirely Sunni Muslim, and roughly a third of residents live in the capital, Nouakchott (Mauritania overview). Religion has shaped public policy on gambling in a direct way. In Islamic jurisprudence, gambling is known as maysir (also written maisir), a general term for acquiring wealth by chance rather than by effort or exchange. A related term, qimar, describes gaining money at the expense of others through reliance on chance. Classical scholarship treats both as forbidden (overview of maysir and qimar).

The prohibition rests on Qur’anic text. Verses 5:90–91 describe intoxicants and gambling as “evil of Satan’s handiwork” and tell believers to shun them, and verse 2:219 says that there is “great evil” in intoxicants and gambling and that “the evil outweighs the benefit” (Qur’an 5:90–91 and 2:219, translation by Mustafa Khattab). This religious prohibition is the background against which Mauritanian law treats gambling.

The legal turning point came in the early 1980s. Under the military government of Mohamed Khouna Ould Haidalla, head of state from January 1980 to December 1984, Islamic law was formally instituted between 1980 and 1983 (Haidalla biography). A GlobaLex research guide published by New York University School of Law describes the period as one of Arabisation and Islamisation: a 1983 law on judicial reorganisation abolished the separation between Islamic and modern chambers in the courts, creating a unified system meant to apply mainly Sharia, and the penal, criminal procedure and other codes were redrafted between 1983 and 1989 to include Sharia norms (GlobaLex, 2022). The present Penal Code and Code of Criminal Procedure were both adopted by ordinance on 9 July 1983, at the end of that period. The Penal Code was published in the Journal officiel de la République Islamique de Mauritanie No. 608–609 on 29 February 1984 (Refworld record of the Penal Code). Its first article classifies offences by reference both to correctional penalties and to the Islamic categories of hudud (fixed penalties) and qisas or diya (retaliation or blood money).

Since then, the country’s legal framework on gambling has remained essentially prohibitive and static. What has changed is the technology. Smartphones, mobile internet and mobile money services have made foreign betting and casino websites accessible from within the country, and in 2026 the government signalled that it considers the existing rules insufficient to deal with gambling on digital platforms (APA News, 3 October 2026).

Legal framework

Checking gambling legislation and licensing

The Constitution

The Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Mauritania of 20 July 1991 was approved by referendum on 12 July 1991 and promulgated by Ordinance No. 91-022. It has been amended several times, notably by Constitutional Law No. 2006-014 of 12 July 2006 and Constitutional Law No. 2012-015 of 20 March 2012. Three provisions frame the legal treatment of gambling:

the preamble describes the Mauritanian people as “respectueuse des préceptes de l’islam, seule source de droit” (respectful of the precepts of Islam, the only source of law);
Article 1 states that “La Mauritanie est une république islamique, indivisible, démocratique et sociale”; and
Article 5 provides that “L’Islam est la religion du peuple et de l’État”.

These provisions do not themselves create a gambling offence. They do, however, mean that any legislation permitting gambling would be difficult to reconcile with the constitutional order, and they explain why no licensing statute has ever been adopted.

The Penal Code of 1983

The principal criminal statute is Ordinance No. 83-162 of 9 July 1983 establishing a Penal Code, which is reproduced on WIPO Lex and in the European Country of Origin Information Network’s legal database. Article 1 states that “Le crime comprend trois catégories”: crimes punishable by correctional penalties, “crimes passibles des peines criminelles houdoud” and “crimes passibles des peines de Guissass ou la Diya prix du sang” (blood money).

The code’s table of contents lists, in Book III, Title II, Chapter II, Section II, a paragraph headed “Infractions aux règlements sur les maisons de jeu, les loteries et les maisons de prêt sur gage” (offences against the rules on gaming houses, lotteries and pawnshops). The heading indicates that the code addresses the keeping of gaming houses and the running of lotteries, but it does not by itself show the scope of each offence.

The Mauritanian news site Sahara Medias, reporting on the 2026 draft law, states that the existing Penal Code makes clandestine gambling and betting an offence, punishing both their practice and their organisation, and that Article 381 provides for imprisonment of two months to two years and a fine of 5,000 to 300,000 old ouguiyas (Sahara Medias, 1 October 2026).

A note of caution is necessary. The publicly available digital copies of the 1983 code consulted for this guide (on WIPO Lex, ecoi.net and Refworld) are scans whose machine-readable text ends at about Article 140. The article number and penalties reported by Sahara Medias could therefore not be checked against the official text, and the wording of the gambling provisions is not quoted here. Nor could it be confirmed whether, or how, the provisions have been amended since 1983. Readers who need the exact text should consult the printed Journal officiel No. 608–609 or the Ministry of Justice.

Islamic law outside the code

Article 1 of the Penal Code refers to hudud offences, but the sources reviewed for this guide do not show gambling being treated as one of them in Mauritania. GlobaLex notes that the Sharia-based corporal punishments in the code were applied only for a short while after the reforms of the 1980s and have since not been enforced in practice (GlobaLex, 2022). The statutory basis for punishing gambling is the section of the Penal Code described above. No Mauritanian court decision on gambling could be located in published sources.

Criminal procedure

Investigations and prosecutions are governed by Ordinance No. 83-163 of 9 July 1983 establishing a Code of Criminal Procedure, adopted on the same day as the Penal Code. Gambling offences are investigated by the police and prosecuted by the public prosecutor in the ordinary criminal courts. No specialised gambling enforcement unit is known to exist.

Regulator and licensing model

Gambling systems around the world usually fall into one of three models. In a monopoly model, the state reserves gambling to one public or state-licensed operator. In a licensing model, private operators may obtain licences from a regulator if they meet set conditions. In a prohibition model, gambling is generally unlawful and no licences are available.

Mauritania follows the prohibition model. There is no gambling regulator, no licensing authority and no licence category for casinos, betting shops, lotteries or online gambling. Consequently:

no operator holds a Mauritanian licence to offer online casino games, sports betting or poker;
no land-based casino operates lawfully in the country;
no national lottery, sports pool or state betting company could be identified; and
there is no official register of authorised operators to consult.

Because there is no regulator, there are also no published market statistics. Figures for gross gaming revenue (GGR), meaning the amount wagered minus winnings paid out, are not available for Mauritania, and no official survey of gambling participation could be found.

Online gambling and enforcement

Online casino games on mobile devices

No Mauritanian law authorises online gambling, and no Mauritanian body issues online gambling licences. Any online casino or betting site accessible from Mauritania is therefore an offshore operator, meaning a company licensed (if at all) in another jurisdiction. A foreign licence has no legal effect in Mauritania and does not make the service lawful there.

The 1983 Penal Code was drafted before the internet existed. Its provisions on gaming houses and lotteries were written with physical premises in mind, and it is not clear from the published record how, or whether, they apply to websites operated from abroad. The government’s own description of the October 2026 draft law, which refers to harmful practices spread through digital platforms, suggests that the authorities themselves regard the current framework as inadequate for online gambling (APA News, 3 October 2026). Sahara Medias links the growth of online betting, especially among young people, to betting applications and the spread of electronic payment methods, and notes that the shift to digital platforms makes monitoring harder (Sahara Medias, 1 October 2026).

Blocking

Some countries use blocking, meaning orders to internet service providers to stop access to listed websites, or to banks and payment institutions to refuse transactions with listed operators. In Mauritania, telecommunications are overseen by the Autorité de Régulation (ARE), a multi-sector regulator established by Law No. 2001-18 of 21 January 2001, which also regulates postal services, water and electricity. Its published material concerns licences, tariffs, interconnection and frequencies. No ARE decision, government decree or published list ordering the blocking of gambling websites could be found for this guide.

Payments

According to Sahara Medias, electronic wallets allow users to top up betting accounts and withdraw money easily. No regulation of the Central Bank of Mauritania specifically prohibiting gambling-related transactions could be identified. Payment service providers remain subject to general rules on anti-money laundering and on unlawful activity, but there is no published payment-blocking list of the type used in some licensing jurisdictions.

Enforcement against clandestine gambling

Local press reports show that the police and gendarmerie act against unlicensed land-based gambling venues, mainly in Nouakchott. In February 2020 Le Calame reported a police campaign that closed a well-known gambling venue in Tevragh Zeïna and similar places at the Tieb-tieb market; the venue’s manager was being sought and many regular players were rounded up (Le Calame, 12 February 2020). In May 2022 it reported that police from the Tevragh Zeïna 2 station had raided a clandestine venue and detained six people (Le Calame, 12 May 2022). In April 2025 Sahara Medias reported that a gendarmerie brigade had arrested eight people in a house in Dar Naim used for games of chance, seizing lottery tickets, playing cards and cash (Sahara Medias, 21 April 2025). None of these reports states the charges brought or the outcome in court.

Advertising

There is no gambling-specific advertising code, because there is no lawful gambling product to advertise. Promotion of gambling would conflict with the general prohibition, and religious and social norms strongly discourage it. No published enforcement action against gambling advertising or social-media promotion in Mauritania could be located.

Position of players

The position of players is less clear than that of operators. The heading of the relevant section of the Penal Code refers to offences against the rules on gaming houses and lotteries, which suggests that it is aimed mainly at those who keep or organise gambling rather than those who take part. Because the text of the articles could not be verified, it cannot be stated with confidence whether participation in gambling, or in online gambling specifically, is itself a criminal offence under Mauritanian statute law.

What can be stated is the following:

no Mauritanian law gives players a right to gamble, and no lawful channel for gambling exists, online or offline;
gambling is forbidden under the Islamic law that the constitution recognises as the only source of law;
according to Sahara Medias, the Penal Code punishes the practice of clandestine gambling as well as its organisation, although this could not be checked against the official text;
press reports describe players being detained in police raids on clandestine venues, but no published record of prosecutions, convictions or fines imposed on individual players, whether for online or land-based gambling, could be found; and
the draft law examined in October 2026 is described as intended to criminalise gambling- and betting-related practices, so the position of players may change once a final text is published.

Players should also be aware of the practical risks of using offshore sites. There is no local regulator to handle complaints, no local dispute-resolution body and no means of enforcing a gambling debt or winnings in Mauritanian courts. Funds deposited with an unlicensed foreign operator are not protected under Mauritanian law.

Taxation

Mauritania has no gambling tax, because it has no lawful gambling sector to tax. The main tax statute, Law No. 2019-018 of 29 April 2019 establishing the General Tax Code, published by the Ministry of Finance, contains no reference to games, lotteries, betting, chance or casinos in the portion of the text available online, which runs to Article 81. Its references to “gains” relate to foreign-exchange gains, not winnings. It could not be confirmed from the published text whether later parts of the code or subsequent finance laws mention gambling; nothing in the sources reviewed suggests that they do.

As there is no licensed operator, there is no gross gaming revenue tax, licence fee or withholding tax on winnings. Players should not interpret the absence of a tax as a sign that gambling is tolerated.

Consumer protection and responsible gambling

In licensing jurisdictions, consumer protection usually rests on operator duties, self-exclusion registers, deposit limits and funded treatment services. None of these exist in Mauritania, because there are no licensed operators on which to impose them. In particular:

there is no national self-exclusion scheme;
there is no gambling helpline or specialised gambling-harm organisation in Mauritania that could be identified; and
there are no statutory age-verification or player-funds rules for gambling.

Social and religious norms play a larger role. Gambling is forbidden in Islamic teaching, as described above, and the state treats the issue partly in religious terms. The government has framed its October 2026 initiative partly as a measure to protect young people, and the Prime Minister asked participants to examine the draft further with regard to its religious, legal and technical aspects (APA News, 3 October 2026).

People in Mauritania who are concerned about their own gambling or that of a family member can seek help from general health services and from community and religious advisers. Practical guidance on recognising gambling harm and on blocking tools for devices and bank cards is available in our responsible gambling guide.

Recent and upcoming developments

Draft law on gambling and betting (October 2026). On 3 October 2026, APA News, citing the Agence mauritanienne d’information (AMI), reported that an interministerial meeting held on Thursday in Nouakchott and chaired by Prime Minister El Moctar Ould Djay had examined a preliminary draft law (“avant-projet de loi”) to strengthen control of gambling and betting activities and to criminalise associated practices. The government linked the initiative to the protection of young people from harmful practices spread through digital platforms, and said its provisions are to be reviewed for conformity with Islamic values. The report states that the draft “n’a toutefois pas encore valeur de loi” (is not yet law) and that no date has been announced for the final text. Sahara Medias, which dated the meeting to Thursday 1 October 2026, reported that the Prime Minister instructed that work continue on the legal, legislative and technical aspects with a view to a final draft (Sahara Medias, 1 October 2026). As of 13 October 2026, no text had been published, adopted by the Council of Ministers or submitted to Parliament, according to the sources available.
Content of the draft. Penalties, the scope of offences, any rules on blocking websites or payments, and whether players would be covered have not been made public. These points should be checked once the text appears in the Journal officiel or is tabled in the National Assembly.
Direction of policy. The stated aim of the draft is stronger control and criminalisation in line with Islamic values. Nothing in the reported material suggests any plan to create a licensed gambling market.

Casino listings for players in Mauritania

The listings below are generated automatically from our casino database. They do not show that any operator is licensed in Mauritania; there is no Mauritanian gambling licence and no regulator’s register to check. Gambling is not authorised under Mauritanian law and is forbidden under the Islamic law the constitution recognises as the source of law, so the listings must not be read as an indication that playing is lawful.

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Key points

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Historical development

Legal framework

The Constitution

The Penal Code of 1983

Islamic law outside the code

Criminal procedure

Regulator and licensing model

Online gambling and enforcement

Blocking

Payments

Enforcement against clandestine gambling

Advertising

Position of players

Taxation

Consumer protection and responsible gambling

Recent and upcoming developments

Casino listings for players in Mauritania

Related country guides

Sources and further reading

Related News