Iraq follows a prohibition model for gambling. There is no licensing system, no regulator for the sector and, as far as could be established, no state lottery or other lawful gambling channel open to the public. The main legal basis is Article 389 of the Iraqi Penal Code (Law No. 111 of 1969), which punishes anyone who opens or runs a gambling venue and anyone found playing there. The Civil Code separately treats gambling and betting agreements as void. No Iraqi statute deals expressly with online gambling, but the authorities have raided gambling halls, blocked platforms and banned games with a betting element. The Kurdistan Region applies the federal Penal Code, although it has its own government, police and communications ministry. This guide explains the framework, how it is enforced, the position of players, taxation and the limited support available.
Key points
- Gambling is prohibited under Article 389 of the Penal Code No. 111 of 1969. Running a gambling venue carries up to one year’s imprisonment, a fine, or both; players found in such a venue face up to one month’s imprisonment or a fine.
- Article 975 of the Civil Code No. 40 of 1951 makes any agreement on gambling or betting void and lets a losing party reclaim what was paid within one year.
- No law specifically addresses online gambling. Iraqi legal scholars have described this as a gap and have urged the legislature to act.
- The Kurdistan Region applies the Iraqi Penal Code. Reporting in 2021 found that the Region had issued no law of its own to regulate or ban gambling venues.
- Recent enforcement includes the arrest of 191 people in raids on Baghdad gambling halls in April 2023 and the Ministry of Communications’ ban on online Ludo in December 2025 because of its betting structure.
Last reviewed: 13 October 2026.
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Historical development
Iraq’s current criminal law dates from 1969. The Penal Code, Law No. 111 of 1969, was issued by decision of the Revolutionary Command Council and published in the official gazette on 15 September 1969, according to the UN ESCWA Arab Legislation Portal. In an English translation of the amended Code published by the University of Misan, Article 389 is the only article in Section Seven (“Gambling”) of the chapter on social offences, next to provisions on public intoxication and begging. The Code has been amended many times since; the text of Article 389 reproduced in 2019 legal commentary targets gambling venues and the people who play in them.
Civil law has taken a parallel approach since the 1950s. The Iraqi Civil Code, Law No. 40 of 1951, refuses to enforce gambling debts (see below). Neither statute was written with the internet in mind, and both remain the starting point for any legal analysis today.
The 2005 Constitution added two features relevant to gambling policy. First, Article 2 provides that “no law may be enacted that contradicts the established provisions of Islam”, a principle often cited in public debate because Islamic jurisprudence forbids gambling (Constitution of Iraq, 2005). Second, it recognised the Kurdistan Region as a federal region with its own legislative and executive powers, which matters for how gambling rules are applied in Erbil, Sulaymaniyah and Duhok.
Since the late 2010s, policy attention has shifted towards digital games and online betting. In April 2019 the Council of Representatives voted for a resolution requiring the government to ban certain online games, chiefly violent games and those “involving financial transactions”, citing their “negative effects on health, culture and security of Iraqi society” (AsiaNews, 2019). Later measures, described below, have focused more directly on betting.
Legal framework
Penal Code, Article 389
Article 389 is the core criminal provision. As reproduced in full in legal commentary by Mohamah.net (2019), it has five paragraphs; a study published on the Iraqi Academic Scientific Journals platform quotes the first three. An official consolidated Arabic text could not be accessed for this review.
- Paragraph 1 punishes with imprisonment of up to one year and a fine, or either penalty, anyone who opens or manages a place for games of chance (al-qimar) and prepares it for public entry, and anyone who organises such games in a public place, a place open to the public, or a place or house prepared for that purpose.
- Paragraph 2 applies the same penalty to the cashiers of the establishment.
- Paragraph 3 punishes anyone found playing in the places listed in paragraph 1 with imprisonment of up to one month or a fine.
- Paragraph 4 requires the money and equipment used in play to be seized and confiscated.
- Paragraph 5 allows the court to order the venue closed for up to one year.
The original text expressed the fines in 1969 dinar amounts (up to 100 dinars for operators and 50 dinars for players). These amounts were replaced by Law No. 6 of 2008 amending the fines in the Penal Code, which was published in the Official Gazette in 2010 and sets fines of 50,000 to 200,000 dinars for infractions, 200,001 to 1,000,000 dinars for misdemeanours and 1,000,001 to 10,000,000 dinars for felonies (Global Justice Project: Iraq translation). Law No. 4 of 2019 refers to the 2008 law as the source of these amended fines (Official Gazette No. 4546, 2019). Running a gambling venue under paragraph 1 is a misdemeanour, so its fine now falls in the band of 200,001 to 1,000,000 dinars. Which band applies to players under paragraph 3 is not settled in any official source we found, and a 2024 paper presented at Tishk International University in Erbil gives different figures (225,000 dinars for operators and 45,000 dinars for players). The current amounts could not be confirmed against an official consolidated text, and readers should check them with an Iraqi lawyer.
Two features of Article 389 are important for online gambling. It is framed around a physical “place” prepared for public entry, and it does not distinguish between games of pure chance and games involving some skill. The Iraqi Academic Scientific Journals study concludes that the article overlooks electronic gambling, even though online casinos offering roulette, blackjack and card games are used in Iraq, and it calls on the legislator to regulate gambling through a dedicated law.
Civil Code, Article 975
Under Article 975(1) of the Civil Code No. 40 of 1951, “every agreement relating to gambling or betting is void”. Article 975(2) allows a person who has lost money in a gamble or bet to recover what was paid within one year of payment, and the payment may be proved by all legal means of proof. This is set out in a paper by Dr Hoshang Farznda Jangier Harki of the University of Duhok, presented at the 8th International Legal Issues Conference, Tishk International University (2024) (full text). The paper also notes an exception in Article 976 for bets made between the competitors themselves in sporting games. In practice, the author argues, recovery from online operators is very difficult because payments go to accounts abroad and conflict-of-laws questions arise.
Federal law and the Kurdistan Region
The Constitution recognises the Kurdistan Region and its authorities (Article 117). Under Article 121(2), where regional and national legislation conflict on a matter outside the federal government’s exclusive powers, the regional authority may amend the application of national legislation within the Region. Article 141 keeps in force legislation enacted in the Region since 1992, subject to the Constitution (Constitution of Iraq, 2005).
For gambling, the practical result is that the Iraqi Penal Code, including Article 389, applies in the Kurdistan Region. An investigation by the Duhok-based outlet PEREGRAF (2021) reported that the Kurdistan Region had issued no laws of its own on organising or banning gambling venues. Policing and local administration are regional, however, so enforcement depends on the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) Ministry of Interior, provincial councils and local police. The same report recorded that the Duhok Provincial Council decided in 2015 to close gambling venues, and that the KRG Interior Ministry pledged in October 2019 to make serious efforts to eliminate gambling, with Interior Minister Rebar Ahmed calling for rules clearly defining what could be licensed.
The PEREGRAF report also described bingo halls operating in Duhok. A local source told the outlet that more than 40 bingo halls held licences from the Duhok provincial administration and paid monthly fees. This claim was not independently verified in the report, and no official register of such licences could be found. It should not be read as evidence that gambling is lawful in the Region.
Regulator and licensing model
Iraq has no gambling regulator and no licensing regime for casinos, betting, lotteries or online gaming, either at federal level or in the Kurdistan Region. In a prohibition model, the state does not authorise any commercial gambling and instead relies on the criminal law, policing and internet controls. This contrasts with a monopoly model, where one state-owned operator is allowed, and a licensing model, where private operators may apply for permits.
Several public bodies are involved in enforcement:
- Federal Ministry of Interior and police: raids on gambling halls and arrests of operators, staff and players.
- National Security Service: closures of venues where gambling and betting take place (see recent developments).
- Federal Ministry of Communications: bans on online platforms, as in the case of Ludo in 2025.
- KRG Ministry of Interior and regional police: enforcement in the Kurdistan Region.
- KRG communications ministry: maintains a list of filtered sites and applications that internet service providers must block.
No official data on the number of gambling prosecutions, convictions or blocked websites could be found.
Online gambling and enforcement
No operator is licensed to offer online casino games, sports betting or online lotteries to people in Iraq. Because Article 389 is framed around physical venues, its application to purely online gambling is a matter of interpretation. Iraqi academic commentary describes this as a gap in the law rather than as a form of permission. Online gambling is not treated as lawful, and the authorities act against it under general criminal, telecommunications and public-morality powers.
Online gambling nonetheless reaches Iraqi users. The Tishk International University paper cites media reports of betting and gambling websites spreading in Iraq, especially in the Kurdistan Region, some of them supporting the Kurdish language, with money flowing to accounts in Cyprus and Greece. A Rudaw TV report of February 2022 that it cites estimated that such sites took about US$3 million a day in Kurdistan; that figure is a media estimate and has not been officially confirmed. A 2021 PEREGRAF report quoted a Duhok provincial council member as saying that about US$200,000 a month left Duhok through online gambling, based on his own inquiries.
Enforcement has taken several forms:
- Raids on local intermediaries. In July 2019 security forces in Erbil raided a building in the English Village which, according to the district mayor, housed an “electronic casino”. Customers were given top-up cards to use on a gambling app from home, and the operation was linked to Cyprus. Four employees were arrested; no customers were reported arrested (Kurdistan24, 2019).
- Electronic gaming machines. In July 2024 police in Baghdad’s Karrada district raided a house where electronic gambling was taking place, arrested the owner and five workers and seized 89 electronic gambling machines; ten customers were present (Shafaq News, 2024).
- Platform bans. In December 2025 the federal Ministry of Communications banned the online version of Ludo. It cited the game’s “betting structure”, in which players pay an entry fee and win or lose money on the result, as well as concerns about blackmail in private chat rooms (Iraqi News, 2025). The report did not identify the legal basis for the ban.
- Filtering in the Kurdistan Region. In October 2025 the KRG communications ministry issued a ministerial order adding Roblox to its list of filtered sites and apps, which internet providers must block within the “family internet” package (The New Region, 2025). That order concerned child safety rather than gambling, but it shows the blocking mechanism available to the regional authorities.
No published list of blocked gambling websites, and no rules on blocking gambling payments, could be found for either federal Iraq or the Kurdistan Region. Gambling advertising has no lawful basis, since no operator can be licensed, but no specific statutory advertising ban for gambling was identified.
Position of players
Iraq is one of the jurisdictions where players, not only operators, can commit an offence. Under Article 389(3) of the Penal Code, a person found playing in a gambling venue can be imprisoned for up to one month or fined, and money on the table can be confiscated. Raids show that this is applied: in April 2023 police arrested 191 people, 159 Iraqis and 32 foreigners, at four gambling halls in Baghdad where blackjack and roulette were being played (The New Arab, 2023; Rudaw, 2023). In Duhok, police said in 2021 that more than 30 people had been arrested on gambling charges in under two months (PEREGRAF).
The position of a person who gambles online from home is less clear. The text of Article 389 refers to being found in a place prepared for gambling, and no reported prosecution of an individual for playing on a foreign website was found. Reported online enforcement has targeted local agents and staff, as in the 2019 Erbil case, where clients who played from home were not reported to have been arrested. It would be wrong, however, to describe online play as lawful: the activity has no legal basis, the gambling contract is void under the Civil Code, and the authorities have shown a willingness to ban platforms and pursue intermediaries.
Players also have no legal protection. Because gambling agreements are void, winnings cannot be enforced in an Iraqi court. Article 975(2) of the Civil Code gives losers a right to reclaim losses within one year, but enforcing that right against an operator based abroad is, as the Duhok University paper notes, rarely practical.
Taxation
Iraq has no gambling tax because no form of commercial gambling is authorised. There is therefore no gross gaming revenue (GGR) tax, licence fee or levy of the kind found in licensing jurisdictions. GGR means the amount staked by players minus the winnings paid out to them.
No provision on the tax treatment of gambling winnings could be identified. Since gambling contracts are void and the activity is unlawful, the more practical consequence for a player is confiscation: Article 389(4) requires the money used in play at a gambling venue to be seized and confiscated. The Kurdistan Region’s reported bingo hall fees, described above, have not been confirmed by any official source.
Consumer protection and responsible gambling
Iraq has no national self-exclusion scheme, no gambling helpline and no gambling-specific treatment service that could be identified. Self-exclusion schemes, where a person asks to be barred from gambling services, exist only where there are licensed operators who can be required to enforce them. The state’s response to gambling harm is the prohibition itself, together with policing and platform bans.
Concern about harm is nonetheless growing. A Shafaq News report (October 2025) described teenagers using prepaid cards to buy credits for real-money private Ludo matches, including one 17-year-old who said he had spent more than seven million dinars before quitting. The specialists quoted recommended digital literacy education in schools and open family discussion of online spending. Earlier reporting from Duhok included accounts of gamblers losing savings and family relationships (PEREGRAF, 2021).
People in Iraq who are worried about their own or a relative’s gambling may need to seek help through general mental-health or addiction services, or through international online support services. General guidance is available in our responsible gambling guide.
Recent and upcoming developments
- Baghdad raids (April 2023). Police raided four gambling halls in Baghdad, arresting 191 people and seizing large amounts of cash. The Interior Ministry said the venues offered blackjack and roulette, and Kurdistan24 reported that alcohol was served there during Ramadan (Kurdistan24, 2023).
- Academic calls for reform (2024). Papers published or presented in 2024 argued that Article 389 does not cover electronic gambling and recommended a dedicated gambling law, heavier penalties for repeat offenders, a longer (three-year) limitation period for recovering losses and, in the Kurdistan Region, blocking orders against gambling websites and action against their local agents. No bill on online gambling was found to be before the Council of Representatives or the Kurdistan Parliament as of 13 October 2026.
- Karrada raid (July 2024). Police seized 89 electronic gambling machines and arrested six people at a house in central Baghdad.
- Roblox bans (October 2025). The federal Ministry of Communications announced a ban on Roblox on 21 October 2025, and the KRG followed with a ministerial order adding it to the filtered list. These measures concerned child safety rather than gambling.
- Ludo ban (December 2025). The federal Ministry of Communications banned online Ludo, citing its betting structure.
- Diyala café closure (April 2026). National Security forces in Baqubah closed a café where gambling, betting on horse races and usury were identified, and arrested five people (Shafaq News security brief, 2026).
Casino listings for players in Iraq
The listings below are generated automatically from our casino database. They do not show that any operator is licensed or permitted in Iraq. Iraq has no gambling regulator and no licensing system, so there is no register to check: offering casino games to people in Iraq, including in the Kurdistan Region, has no legal basis, gambling agreements are void, and players found gambling at a gambling venue can be prosecuted under Article 389 of the Penal Code. The listings must not be read as an indication that playing is lawful.
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Related country guides
- Kuwait gambling guide
- Saudi Arabia gambling guide
- Jordan gambling guide
- Lebanon gambling guide
- Azerbaijan gambling guide
Sources and further reading
- Constitute Project, Iraq’s Constitution of 2005 (accessed 13 October 2026).
- UN ESCWA Arab Legislation Portal, Law 111 of 1969 on the Criminal and Penal Code (accessed 13 October 2026).
- al-Wasif, A. (Mohamah.net), Penalty for gambling or running gambling halls in Iraqi law (2019).
- University of Misan, Faculty of Law, Iraqi Penal Code No. 111 of 1969 with amendments (unofficial English translation; accessed 13 October 2026).
- Iraqi Academic Scientific Journals, Gambling between prohibition and criminalisation: a comparative study of Sharia and law (accessed 13 October 2026).
- Harki, H. F. J. (University of Duhok), Gambling and electronic betting: a comparative legal study, 8th International Legal Issues Conference, Tishk International University (2024); full text (.docx).
- PEREGRAF, Gambling is ever on the rise in Duhok (2021).
- Kurdistan24, Erbil security bust online gambling operation (2019).
- Kurdistan24, Iraqi gambling dens raided, nearly 200 arrested: ministry (2023).
- Rudaw, Nearly 200 arrested in raid on Baghdad gambling halls (2023).
- The New Arab, Iraq: Police arrest over 200 in raid on illegal casinos during Ramadan (2023).
- Shafaq News, Closure of gambling halls and arrests in Baghdad (2024).
- Shafaq News, Ludo’s hidden bets: Iraqi youth caught in a new wave of digital gambling (2025).
- Shafaq News, Iraq security brief (2026).
- Iraqi News, Iraq bans online Ludo game over social concerns (2025).
- The New Region, KRG bans Roblox, citing public interest (2025).
- AsiaNews, Baghdad, Parliament bans online games for kids: too violent (2019).
- Global Justice Project: Iraq, Law No. 6 of 2008 amending the fines in the Penal Code (English translation) (accessed 13 October 2026).
- Ministry of Justice of Iraq, Official Gazette (al-Waqai al-Iraqiya) No. 4546 (8 July 2019).
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