Iran prohibits gambling in all its forms. The Constitution requires all laws to be based on Islamic criteria, and the Islamic Penal Code treats qimar (gambling) and betting as criminal offences. There is no regulator, no licensing regime, no state lottery, no lawful casino and no lawful online gambling. In February 2023 the legislature rewrote the Code’s gambling articles to cover online gambling and betting explicitly, with penalties for players, operators, promoters and people who provide bank payment instruments for gambling.
Key points
- All gambling is unlawful. Articles 705 to 711 of Book Five of the Islamic Penal Code, rewritten by a law dated 22 February 2023 (3 Esfand 1401), criminalise gambling and betting in physical and online spaces.
- Playing is itself an offence: the amended Article 705 punishes gambling with a sixth-degree fine. Operators face imprisonment, and encouraging gambling or providing bank payment instruments for it are separate offences.
- No authority licenses gambling. Enforcement is carried out by the police, including the cyber police (FATA), the Ministry of Intelligence and the courts, alongside a national internet filtering system for content deemed criminal.
- Iran remains on the Financial Action Task Force’s list of high-risk jurisdictions subject to a call for action, with countermeasures reaffirmed in June 2026.
- Extensive United States sanctions apply, and United Nations, European Union and United Kingdom measures were reimposed in September and October 2025, restricting banking and payment channels involving Iran.
Last reviewed: 14 October 2026.
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Historical development
Trade press reporting on recent enforcement states that gambling has been prohibited in Iran since the 1979 revolution (SiGMA News, 2024). We could not locate a primary or academic source on gambling in Iran before 1979, so this guide does not cover that period.
The post-revolutionary constitutional order supplies the foundation for the ban. Article 4 of the Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Iran provides that all civil, penal, financial and economic laws “must be based on Islamic criteria”, with the jurists of the Guardian Council judging compliance. Article 49 goes further and directs the government to confiscate wealth accumulated through usury, bribery, embezzlement, theft, gambling and other illicit sources, and to return it to its owner or, where none can be identified, to the public treasury.
Gambling offences were codified in Book Five of the Islamic Penal Code, the book on ta’zirat (discretionary punishments, as distinct from fixed hadd punishments), which the Iran Human Rights Documentation Center dates to 1996 (IHRDC translation of Book Five). In its original form, Article 705 stated that “gambling by any means is forbidden” and punished it with one to six months’ imprisonment or up to 74 lashes, or both where gambling took place in public. Articles 706 to 711 covered gambling equipment, gambling houses, confiscation of gambling cash, accessories and officials who failed to report such venues.
In November 2021 parliament began approving a bill to rewrite Articles 705 to 711 for the online era (Zoomit, November 2021); it became law in February 2023.
Legal framework
The Islamic Penal Code and the degree system
Books One to Four of the Islamic Penal Code were passed by the Islamic Consultative Assembly in April 2013 (UNODC SHERLOC, Islamic Penal Code). Book Five, which contains the gambling offences, dates from 1996 and remains in force as amended, but its penalties are expressed through the 2013 system of “degrees”.
Article 19 of the 2013 Code sorts discretionary punishments into eight degrees (IHRDC translation of Books I and II). In the 2013 text, the degrees most relevant to gambling are:
| Degree | Imprisonment | Fine (2013 text) |
|---|---|---|
| Fourth | 5 to 10 years | 180 million to 360 million rials |
| Fifth | 2 to 5 years | 80 million to 180 million rials |
| Sixth | 6 months to 2 years | 20 million to 80 million rials |
| Seventh | 91 days to 6 months | 10 million to 20 million rials |
The sixth and seventh degrees also include flogging (31 to 74 and 11 to 30 lashes respectively). Under Article 28 of the Code, fine amounts are to be revised every three years, on the proposal of the Minister of Justice and with Cabinet approval, in line with the inflation rate published by the Central Bank, so the rial figures above are historical; we could not verify the amounts currently in force.
The 2023 law amending Articles 705 to 711
The Law Amending Articles 705 to 711 of Book Five is dated 3 Esfand 1401 (22 February 2023), according to a 2025 study by Barezgar and Ghasemi in the Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology. The official texts on the Majlis Research Center and national laws portals (rc.majlis.ir, qavanin.ir) could not be accessed for this guide, so the summary below relies on that study and a second article analysing the amendment (comparative study of Iranian and English law).
- Article 705 (gambling and betting). The definition was widened to cover betting, profit-sharing wagers and lotteries or contests with conditional payouts, whether online or offline. The penalty for gambling is a sixth-degree fine. Imprisonment and flogging, which the old article allowed, no longer appear in the base penalty described by Barezgar and Ghasemi.
- Article 706 (operators). Running or managing any real or virtual space used for gambling is punished by sixth-degree imprisonment, rising to fifth-degree imprisonment plus a fine where the operator has made a profit.
- Aggravating circumstances. Barezgar and Ghasemi list professional or organised activity, use of cryptocurrency, and disguising gambling as a charitable or service activity as aggravating factors. Where the conduct amounts to the separate and more serious offences of “corruption on earth” or disruption of the economic system, those provisions apply instead.
- Equipment. Making, holding or transporting gambling devices is criminal only where the person intends them to be used for gambling.
- Promotion and payment channels. According to Barezgar and Ghasemi, the amended Article 709 criminalises encouraging others to gamble, helping to set up or run gambling venues, and providing bank payment instruments for gambling. The specific penalties for these acts are summarised below only as reported at bill stage.
Press coverage of the bill in November 2021 reported further provisions: imprisonment and a seventh-degree fine for promoters; liability for the holder of a bank card or payment gateway used for gambling unless lack of knowledge is proved; an exemption for participants who help identify operators; bans of six months to two years (two to five for repeat offences) from banking, internet and mobile services; and fourth-degree imprisonment for leading an organised group or where funds exceed 10 billion rials (Zoomit). The enacted text may differ, so these details should be treated as reported rather than confirmed.
Regulator and licensing model
Iran follows a model of prohibition: no form of commercial gambling can be authorised, so there is no regulator, licence type or register of licensed operators, and we found no national lottery. Responsibility lies with the judiciary and prosecutors, the police, including the cyber police known as FATA, and the Ministry of Intelligence. Barezgar and Ghasemi describe the approach as “absolute prohibition and punishment”.
Online gambling and enforcement
No online gambling of any kind is lawful in Iran. Offering online casino games or betting to people in Iran, operating a betting website or channel, promoting one, and processing its payments are all criminal offences under the amended Book Five.
Blocking
Blocking, or filtering, means directing internet service providers to prevent access to specified websites. In Iran it rests on the Computer Crimes Law. In the IHRDC translation, Article 21 makes service providers liable if they fail to filter content that “generates crime”, and Article 22 sets up a committee at the Office of the Prosecutor-General that decides on filtering and whose decisions cannot be appealed. The IHRDC dates the law to January 2010. Freedom House rates Iran’s internet as “Not Free”, with a score of 13 out of 100, and reports that thousands of websites and almost all major social media platforms remain blocked or filtered (Freedom on the Net 2025). The sources reviewed do not publish a list of blocked gambling domains, but the operation of betting websites is itself a criminal offence under the amended Penal Code.
Policing
No consolidated enforcement statistics were found. The digital-rights project Filterwatch compiled official FATA announcements in 2021, including arrests in Golestan Province over betting operations with alleged turnovers of 75 billion and 422 billion rials, and repeated arrests of people running Instagram pages and Telegram channels that promoted betting sites (FATAwatch, July to September 2021; October to December 2021). The turnover figures are police claims and have not been independently verified.
On 9 March 2024 the Ministry of Intelligence announced that, after a 14-month investigation, it had dismantled what it called the country’s largest online betting network. According to state broadcaster Press TV, the ministry said the network used 35,006 bank accounts, 1,200 payment gateways and 54 betting websites, and five alleged managers were arrested on charges including economic sabotage (Press TV, March 2024). The ministry also alleged that the network was London-based and tolerated by the British authorities; trade press reported these as unverified claims (GGB Magazine).
Scale of the illegal market
There are no official estimates of the illegal market’s size. A qualitative University of Tehran study, based on interviews with 17 gamblers, describes growing acceptance of online gambling among young people despite its illegality and linked its spread to the devaluation of the national currency (Mazoochi, Yousefikhah and Rabiei, 2024).
On 31 July 2026 Reuters reported that a Persian-language gambling network spanning more than 2,000 websites had helped move at least 4 billion US dollars through an unlicensed Dubai-based cryptocurrency exchange, in what Reuters described as a sanctions-evasion scheme. Reuters also reported that the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) had taken control of major gambling websites accessible inside Iran years earlier, while stating that it could not establish whether the IRGC directly controlled the exchange or the wider network (as summarised by Iran International). The Iranian government and the IRGC did not respond to Reuters; the exchange denied knowingly taking part in money laundering and said it had stopped operating in January 2026 (Reuters, 7 August 2026, republished by GV Wire). On 7 August 2026 the US Treasury designated the exchange, affiliated companies and a separate Iran-based exchange. Its release alleged that IRGC-linked digital currency addresses had exchanged funds with the Dubai exchange, and stated that the network’s two promoters had been convicted of illegal gambling in Iran in 2023 but that their sites still had access to Iran’s online payment systems (US Treasury press release). These are allegations by a news agency and a foreign government and have not been independently verified for this guide.
Position of players
The player, and not only the operator, commits an offence. Under the amended Article 705, a person who gambles or bets, online or offline, is liable to a sixth-degree fine (Barezgar and Ghasemi). A second study, by authors at Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, states that all participants in the offence are treated as offenders, while also describing gamblers as victims whom the criminal justice system does not recognise or support (Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology). Before 2023, playing could be punished by imprisonment or flogging.
The enforcement reports reviewed for this guide concern operators, administrators and promoters; we found no published statistics on prosecutions or fines of individual players under the amended law. Nothing in the sources reviewed exempts play on foreign-based websites.
Taxation
Because no gambling is lawful, Iran has no gambling tax on operators and no tax regime for winnings. The state’s approach to gambling money is confiscation: Article 49 of the Constitution directs the government to confiscate wealth acquired through gambling, and the original Article 709 of Book Five provided for confiscation of gambling cash.
Banking, anti-money laundering and sanctions
The following is a factual summary, not legal advice.
- FATF. The Financial Action Task Force keeps Iran on its list of high-risk jurisdictions subject to a call for action. In its June 2026 statement it “urges all jurisdictions to apply effective countermeasures”, such as refusing new correspondent banking relationships with Iranian institutions. It assessed that Iran’s reservations to the Palermo and Terrorist Financing Conventions, reported in January 2026, were “overly broad”.
- United States. The Office of Foreign Assets Control administers an extensive Iran sanctions programme based on multiple executive orders, statutes and regulations. The Iranian Transactions and Sanctions Regulations prohibit, among other things, the export of services to Iran from the United States or by US persons, US-person dealings (including financing) in goods or services of Iranian origin or destined for Iran, and US-person facilitation of such transactions by foreign persons.
- European Union. After the United Nations sanctions were reimposed on 28 September 2025, the Council adopted Regulation (EU) 2025/1975 on 29 September 2025, amending Regulation (EU) No 267/2012 to restore measures lifted in 2016. According to Debevoise & Plimpton, these include restrictions on unauthorised transfers of funds to and from Iranian persons and financial institutions.
- United Kingdom. The UK applies the Iran (Sanctions) Regulations 2023 and the Iran (Sanctions) (Nuclear) (EU Exit) Regulations 2019, with asset freezes and trade-linked financial restrictions (UK statutory guidance). According to Debevoise & Plimpton, the UK amended its 2019 nuclear sanctions regulations on 1 October 2025 to reflect the UN reimposition.
Taken together, these measures sharply limit correspondent banking and cross-border payments involving Iran.
Consumer protection and responsible gambling
Because gambling is prohibited, Iran has none of the consumer-protection architecture found in regulated markets. We found no national self-exclusion register, no gambling-specific helpline, no regulator-mandated limits and no published problem-gambling prevalence survey.
We could not identify a dedicated public support service for gambling in Iran. General guidance on recognising and limiting gambling harm is available in our responsible gambling guide.
Recent and upcoming developments
- February 2023: amendment of Articles 705 to 711.
- March 2024: Ministry of Intelligence announcement on a betting network.
- September and October 2025: UN, EU and UK sanctions reimposed.
- June 2026: the FATF kept Iran on its call-for-action list.
- July and August 2026: Reuters report and US Treasury designations described above.
We found no pending proposal to legalise or license any form of gambling in Iran.
Casino listings for players in Iran
The listings below are generated automatically from our casino database. No operator is, or can be, licensed to offer gambling in Iran: gambling and betting, including online play, are criminal offences for players as well as operators under Articles 705 to 711 of the Islamic Penal Code. The listings must not be read as an indication that playing is lawful. International sanctions and FATF countermeasures also restrict payments and dealings involving Iran.
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Related country guides
- Azerbaijan gambling guide
- Turkmenistan gambling guide
- Iraq gambling guide
- Kuwait gambling guide
- Armenia gambling guide
Sources and further reading
- Constitute Project, Iran (Islamic Republic of)’s Constitution of 1979 with Amendments through 1989 (accessed 14 October 2026).
- Iran Human Rights Documentation Center, Islamic Penal Code of the Islamic Republic of Iran: Book Five (English translation, accessed 14 October 2026).
- Iran Human Rights Documentation Center, English Translation of Books I and II of the New Islamic Penal Code (accessed 14 October 2026).
- UNODC SHERLOC, Islamic Penal Code of the Islamic Republic of Iran (English edition, 2016).
- Barezgar, M. and Ghasemi, M., A Comparative Study of the Criminal Policies of Iran and Turkey Regarding Gambling and Betting, Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology, 13(26) (2025).
- Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology, A Comparative Study of Strategies to Tackle Online Gambling Crime in Iran and England Law (accessed 14 October 2026).
- Zoomit, Penalties for gambling and betting in cyberspace determined (in Persian, November 2021).
- Mazoochi, M., Yousefikhah, S. and Rabiei, L., A Socio-economic Analysis of the Online Gambling, Journal of Information Technology Management, 16(2) (2024).
- Iran Human Rights Documentation Center, Islamic Republic of Iran: Computer Crimes Law (English translation, accessed 14 October 2026).
- Freedom House, Iran: Freedom on the Net 2025 (2025).
- Filterwatch, FATAwatch: July to September 2021 (2021).
- Filterwatch, FATAwatch: October to December 2021 (2022).
- Press TV, Iran Intelligence Ministry busts biggest gambling and betting network (9 March 2024).
- SiGMA News (Hogg, L.), Iran cracks down on illegal gambling activities (12 March 2024).
- GGB Magazine, Iran Dismantles U.K.-Linked Gaming Network (16 March 2024).
- Iran International, Report on Reuters investigation into an Iranian gambling network and cryptocurrency flows (31 July 2026).
- Reuters (Finch, G. and Dalatey, F.), republished by GV Wire, US sanctions Dubai crypto exchange for aiding Iran’s IRGC following a Reuters report (7 August 2026).
- US Department of the Treasury, Treasury Sanctions Crypto Exchanges Funding Iran’s IRGC and Enabling Illicit Finance (7 August 2026).
- Financial Action Task Force, High-Risk Jurisdictions subject to a Call for Action, 19 June 2026 (2026).
- US Department of the Treasury, Office of Foreign Assets Control, Iran Sanctions (accessed 14 October 2026).
- Electronic Code of Federal Regulations, 31 CFR Part 560, Subpart B: Iranian Transactions and Sanctions Regulations, Prohibitions (accessed 14 October 2026).
- Council of the European Union, Council Regulation (EU) 2025/1975 of 29 September 2025 amending Regulation (EU) No 267/2012 concerning restrictive measures against Iran (2025).
- Debevoise & Plimpton, United Nations, European Union and United Kingdom Reimposed Sanctions on Iran (November 2025).
- HM Government, Iran sanctions: statutory guidance (updated 9 September 2026).
