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Afghanistan Online Casino Guide

Published by Casino News Daily editorial teamReviewed byFilip RadulovicOur editorial approach

Gambling in any form is prohibited in Afghanistan, and there is no lawful gambling market, licensing system or regulator. Since August 2021 the country has been governed by the Taliban, whom the United Nations refers to as the de facto authorities. Their rules treat gambling as forbidden under Islamic law and enforce that prohibition through two instruments: the 2024 Law on the Propagation of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, applied by morality inspectors, and a court penal code circulated in January 2026 that sets a four-month prison term for gamblers. Courts also impose public flogging for a range of offences, and United Nations human rights experts name gambling among the offences of which most people flogged in 2025 were accused. There are no casinos, no lottery and no licensed online operators.

Key points

Gambling is prohibited. No casino, lottery, betting shop or online gambling operator is licensed, and no gambling regulator exists.
Article 22 of the Law on the Propagation of Virtue and Prevention of Vice (dated 31 July 2024 in the Official Gazette according to an unofficial translation; the UN gives 21 August 2024 as the publication date) requires inspectors to prevent gambling, betting games and animal fights.
Article 66 of the de facto authorities’ Penal Code for Courts, circulated to courts in early 2026, provides that a judge “should sentence a gambler to four months’ imprisonment”.
UN human rights experts reported in March 2026 that at least 1,110 people were publicly flogged in 2025; the “overwhelming majority” were men accused of crimes such as theft, drugs, alcohol and gambling.
Players, not only organisers, face arrest, detention, imprisonment and corporal punishment. Banking links are limited, and a nationwide internet and telecommunications shutdown took place from 29 September to 1 October 2025.

Last reviewed: 14 October 2026.

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Historical development

Gambling has been unlawful in Afghanistan under successive governments. The Penal Code adopted on 22 September 1976 contained a chapter (Chapter Twenty) headed “Gambling”, according to the English translation held by UNHCR Refworld.

During the first period of Taliban rule (1996–2001), gambling was policed as a moral offence. The Afghan Witness project notes that a 2001 regulation on the promotion of virtue and prevention of vice set a punishment of “one month’s detention for gambling”.

Under the Islamic Republic, a new Penal Code was published in Official Gazette No. 1260 on 15 May 2017 and entered into force on 14 February 2018, as recorded in the ecoi.net Afghanistan law guide. That guide notes that no unofficial English translation of the 2017 code could be found, and we were not able to verify the wording or article numbers of its gambling provisions for this review.

In August 2021 the Taliban returned to power and declared the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan. The status of Republic-era statutes, including the 2017 Penal Code, has not been clearly settled in public. The Afghanistan Analysts Network (AAN) records that the de facto Ministry of Justice says every rule it issues must have a source in sharia (Islamic law), and the authorities have since issued their own instruments on gambling, described below.

Legal framework

Islamic law background

Islamic law prohibits gambling, known in Arabic as maysir or qimar. The main textual basis is the Qur’an, verse 5:90, which in a widely used English translation reads: “Intoxicants, gambling, idols, and drawing lots for decisions are all evil of Satan’s handiwork.”

Law on the Propagation of Virtue and Prevention of Vice (2024)

The Law on the Propagation of Virtue and Prevention of Vice (often abbreviated PVPV) was approved by the Taliban leader on 10 July 2024 and, according to the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA), published in the Official Gazette and promulgated on 21 August 2024. The AAN’s unofficial translation, however, records publication in Official Gazette No. 1452 dated 10 Asad 1403 (31 July 2024). Both dates are given here. The law has 35 articles and is enforced by the de facto Ministry for the Propagation of Virtue and Prevention of Vice through inspectors. UNAMA estimated about 3,300 male inspectors in 28 of 34 provinces in January 2025.

Article 22 lists “individual, wrongful acts” that an inspector is “duty-bound to prevent”. In the AAN translation of the law, these include:

clause 6: gambling, egg-fighting, mardaki (which the translators describe as a betting game played with stones or walnuts), beday (a game played with the bones of sheep and goats), playing with walnuts and other gaming;
clause 7: creating “a platform or circumstances conducive to” listed sexual offences “or gambling”, which appears aimed at those who organise or host gambling; and
clause 8: “Making dogs, cocks, quails, pheasants or any other animals or birds fight with each other.”

Article 24 sets out a graduated scale of measures that inspectors may apply on witnessing a violation: exhortation, reminders of divine displeasure, threats and “strong words”, a fine, detention in a public prison for one to 24 hours or for one to three days, and “any punishment that an enforcer considers appropriate” short of those reserved for courts. Under Article 25, a person who does not “mend his ways” after these measures is referred to a court.

Penal Code for Courts (2026)

In January 2026 a new code for the courts, titled in Pashto Da Muhakimo Jaza’i Usulnama (Penal Code for Courts), became public. JURIST reported that it was signed by the Taliban leader on 7 January 2026 and circulated to provincial courts, and that it contains 119 articles. The AAN, in an analysis published on 26 February 2026, notes that the code mainly covers ta’zir punishments (discretionary penalties set by a judge, as opposed to the fixed hudud penalties) and that it had not yet been published in the Official Gazette.

Article 66 of the code, headed “Punishment for gamblers”, states in the AAN unofficial translation: “Gambling in all its forms is an offence in the eyes of sharia. A judge should sentence a gambler to four months’ imprisonment.” The provision draws no distinction between organisers and participants, or between land-based and online gambling.

Regulator and licensing model

Afghanistan follows a model of total prohibition. There is no licensing authority, no category of licence for casinos, lotteries, betting or online gaming, and no register of permitted operators. The bodies involved with gambling are enforcement bodies only:

the de facto Ministry for the Propagation of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, whose inspectors detect, detain and refer suspected gamblers under the 2024 law;
the police and provincial security commands, which announce arrests for gambling; and
the de facto courts and Supreme Court, which pass sentences, including imprisonment and flogging, and publish announcements of punishments carried out.

The Afghan Witness project reviewed publicly announced arrests by the virtue and vice ministry between 21 August 2024 and 31 January 2025 and found that gambling was the second most frequently cited offence, with 42 people arrested, after “witchcraft” with 43 (Afghan Witness, 17 March 2025).

Online gambling and enforcement

No online casino, sports betting or lottery service is licensed in Afghanistan, and the sources reviewed contain no provision allowing one. The 2026 Penal Code for Courts covers gambling “in all its forms”, which on its terms includes gambling online. Organising or facilitating gambling is also caught by Article 22(7) of the 2024 law. Advertising of gambling is not addressed separately in the sources reviewed.

Access to the internet is itself tightly controlled. In the weeks before late September 2025 the authorities cut high-speed internet in several provinces, a step described as a measure “to prevent immoral activities” on the orders of the supreme leader, according to CBS News. According to UNAMA, access had been interrupted in many parts of the country from 16 September, and a nationwide cut of internet and mobile services took effect on the evening of 29 September 2025 without prior notice. UNAMA called on the de facto authorities to “immediately and fully restore” access, noting effects on banking and financial systems, remittances, emergency and medical services and aviation. Connectivity returned on 1 October 2025, after more than 48 hours, without an official explanation for the shutdown (CBS News). In its April–June 2026 update, UNAMA recorded that mobile phone networks were down in parts of the country on 26 June 2026, with network providers giving no reason.

In May 2025 the authorities suspended chess nationwide. A sports directorate spokesperson told AFP that “chess in sharia (Islamic law) is considered a means of gambling” and AFP noted that gambling is prohibited under the virtue and vice law announced the previous year. The suspension was “until further notice”, pending religious considerations being addressed. NPR reported in June 2025 that the national chess federation had been disbanded and that the ban appeared to remain in effect. We found no report of it being lifted as of this review.

Position of players

In Afghanistan the person who gambles, not only the organiser, commits an offence. The 2024 law treats gambling as an individual wrongful act, and the 2026 Penal Code for Courts sets imprisonment for “a gambler”. Reported penalties include:

Measures by inspectors: warnings, fines and detention of up to three days under Article 24 of the 2024 law, followed by referral to a court;
Imprisonment: four months under Article 66 of the 2026 court code; and
Corporal punishment: public flogging ordered by courts. In a statement of 3 March 2026, UN special rapporteurs and other independent experts reported that the de facto Supreme Court announced the public flogging of at least 1,110 people in 2025 (940 men and 170 women), almost double the 2024 figure of at least 567. They wrote that “the overwhelming majority are men accused of crimes such as theft, selling or using drugs and alcohol, and gambling”, and that sentences are often 39 lashes, frequently combined with imprisonment.

Individual cases are reported regularly. On 31 July 2025 the Supreme Court announced that 13 people had been flogged in Kabul province on gambling and drug charges (Afghanistan International). On 22 September 2026 the de facto security command in Kunduz province announced the arrest of 14 people in various areas of the province for gambling and the seizure of cash and gambling equipment (Afghanistan International, Pashto service). UNAMA’s quarterly updates show that judicial corporal punishment continues: at least 180 people in January–March 2025 (UNAMA) and at least 137 (112 men and 25 women) in April–June 2026 (UNAMA, April–June 2026 update). These updates do not always break down offences, so the exact number of people punished for gambling is not published.

Because the prohibition applies to gambling “in all its forms”, there is no lawful route to gamble, online or offline.

Banking, anti-money laundering and sanctions

Afghanistan’s links to the international financial system weakened sharply after August 2021. In October 2021 the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), the inter-governmental body that sets anti-money laundering standards, issued a public statement on the situation in Afghanistan expressing concern about “the current and evolving money laundering and terrorist financing risk environment” and said it would monitor the situation. The statement did not refer to placing Afghanistan on the FATF’s grey or black lists. Afghanistan remains a member of the Asia/Pacific Group on Money Laundering (FATF country page).

The country’s financial intelligence unit, FinTRACA, which operated within the central bank, Da Afghanistan Bank, had its access to the Egmont Group’s secure network suspended in an emergency decision by the Group’s chair, which members confirmed on 31 August 2021. Members later reached a consensus to expel it; the Egmont Group’s announcement is undated, and we could not verify the date of the expulsion. The Egmont Group stated that the legal framework that had qualified it for membership “is currently not enforced by the new administration”.

International sanctions are targeted rather than country-wide. The UN Security Council’s resolution 1988 (2011) sanctions regime requires states to freeze the assets of, and apply a travel ban and arms embargo to, the individuals and entities designated on the 1988 Committee’s sanctions list; it does not prohibit all dealings with Afghanistan. In the United States, the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) issued General License No. 20 on 25 February 2022, authorising most transactions involving Afghanistan and its governing institutions while excluding transfers to the Taliban, the Haqqani Network and other blocked persons. The licence notes that property of Da Afghanistan Bank held in the United States remains blocked. In practice, cross-border payments involving Afghanistan face restrictions and compliance checks; this note is not legal advice.

Taxation

Because no form of gambling is lawful, Afghanistan has no gambling tax, no licence fees and no rules on the taxation of winnings.

Consumer protection and responsible gambling

There is no national self-exclusion scheme, no gambling helpline and no regulator-run consumer protection framework in Afghanistan, and we found no organisation in the country dedicated to gambling harm. General information on recognising and managing gambling harm is available in our responsible gambling guide.

Recent and upcoming developments

May 2025: chess suspended. The sports authorities suspended chess “until further notice” as “a means of gambling” (AFP; NPR); no lifting had been reported as of this review.
September–October 2025: internet shutdown. A nationwide internet and telecommunications shutdown from 29 September to 1 October 2025 lasted more than 48 hours, after provincial restrictions on high-speed internet (UNAMA; CBS News).
January 2026: Penal Code for Courts. A 119-article court code setting four months’ imprisonment for gambling was circulated to courts; as of the AAN’s February 2026 analysis it had not been published in the Official Gazette.
March 2026: UN experts on corporal punishment. UN experts reported that at least 1,110 people were publicly flogged in 2025, with gambling among the offences named (OHCHR).

No reform that would permit any form of gambling has been reported. Points to watch include publication of the Penal Code for Courts in the Official Gazette and further internet restrictions.

Casino listings for players in Afghanistan

The listings below are generated automatically from our casino database. No operator of any kind is licensed in Afghanistan, and there is no regulator or register to check. Gambling in all its forms, including online gambling, is prohibited by the de facto authorities, and players face arrest, imprisonment and corporal punishment. The listings must not be read as an indication that playing is lawful. International sanctions and banking restrictions also limit payments and dealings involving Afghanistan.

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Afghanistan Online Casino Guide

Key points

Online casinos for Afghanistan

Historical development

Legal framework

Islamic law background

Law on the Propagation of Virtue and Prevention of Vice (2024)

Penal Code for Courts (2026)

Regulator and licensing model

Online gambling and enforcement

Position of players

Banking, anti-money laundering and sanctions

Taxation

Consumer protection and responsible gambling

Recent and upcoming developments

Casino listings for players in Afghanistan

Related country guides

Sources and further reading

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