Gambling in Montserrat: Laws, Penal Code and Online Play

Published by Casino News Daily editorial teamReviewed byFilip RadulovicOur editorial approach

Montserrat, a British Overseas Territory in the Leeward Islands, has no dedicated gambling statute, no gambling regulator and no licensing system for casinos, betting or online gaming. Its revised laws contain no Gaming Act, Betting Act or Lotteries Act. Gambling is addressed instead in the territory’s general criminal law: the Penal Code (Cap. 4.02) includes a section headed “Gambling” within its part on nuisances and offences against the public. Anti-money-laundering supervision, carried out by the Financial Services Commission, does not include a casino or gaming sector, and the most recent international evaluation of Montserrat’s financial-crime framework describes its regulated non-financial businesses without mentioning any gambling operator. This guide sets out what the official sources show, what they do not show, and where the legal position could not be confirmed.

Key points

The 2019 and 2025 Revised Editions of the Laws of Montserrat list no Act whose title concerns gambling, gaming, betting, lotteries or casinos.
The Penal Code (Cap. 4.02), as revised to 1 January 2025, contains section 369, headed “Gambling”, in Part 26 on nuisances and other offences against the public.
There is no gambling regulator and no published register of licensed gambling operators; no statute was found that provides for remote (online) gambling licences.
Montserrat’s Anti-Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing Regulations 2024 list the businesses subject to supervision without naming casinos, and the Caribbean Financial Action Task Force’s 2024 evaluation lists no gambling businesses in the territory’s non-financial sector.
No gambling-specific self-exclusion scheme or helpline was identified; general mental health services are provided by the Ministry of Health and Social Services.

Last reviewed: 13 October 2026.

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Historical development

Montserrat is a small volcanic island in the eastern Caribbean and one of the United Kingdom’s Overseas Territories. Its recent history has been dominated by the eruption of the Soufrière Hills volcano, which made the south of the island uninhabitable. The Montserrat Volcano Observatory states that there is no public access to its Zone V, which includes Plymouth, the former capital. The Government of Montserrat’s administrative address is now Government Headquarters in Brades. The island is small, and no commercial gambling industry of the kind found in some other Caribbean jurisdictions appears in its official records.

That background is reflected in the statute book. The official consolidations of Montserrat’s law do not include a casino, lottery or betting statute, a gaming board or any scheme for authorising lottery companies. The territory relies on a criminal-law provision in its Penal Code rather than on a regulatory regime. In legal terms this can be described as a default prohibition model: gambling activity is controlled through general offences, and no route exists by which a commercial operator can obtain permission to offer gambling.

There is no public record, in the official sources reviewed for this guide, of a Montserrat national lottery, a licensed betting shop, a licensed casino or a licensed gaming-machine arcade. It was not possible to verify from official sources whether lottery products run by regional companies elsewhere in the Leeward Islands are sold on Montserrat. Readers should treat any claim that such products are lawfully available on the island with caution unless it is supported by an official notice.

Legal framework

Checking gambling legislation and licensing

Constitutional position

Montserrat’s constitution is the Montserrat Constitution Order 2010 (UK Statutory Instrument 2010 No. 2474). The Order provides for a Legislative Assembly with power to make laws for the territory, a Cabinet led by a Premier and a Governor appointed by the Crown. Under section 39, the Governor has special responsibility for defence, external affairs, the regulation of international financial services, and internal security including the police service, together with certain functions relating to the public service. The Order also contains provisions on the disallowance of laws (section 76) and a power reserved to the Crown to legislate for the territory (section 121).

The practical consequence for gambling is that Montserrat makes its own gambling law. United Kingdom gambling legislation, which is administered in Great Britain by the Gambling Commission, does not form part of Montserrat’s statute book.

Revised Laws of Montserrat

Montserrat publishes consolidated revisions of its statutes. The Revised Edition of Laws Order 2020 (S.R.O. 5 of 2020), made on 11 February 2020, gave authoritative status to the 2019 Revised Edition, which states the law as at 1 January 2019. A further revision showing the law as at 1 January 2025 has since been published by the Attorney General’s Chambers.

Neither consolidation contains a gambling statute. The Attorney General’s Chambers’ index of Acts (Revised) 2025, an alphabetical list of around 270 Acts, includes no title referring to gambling, gaming, betting, lotteries, raffles, casinos, pools or racing. The same is true of the index of Acts (Revised) 2019. A search of the titles of laws formally omitted from the revision also found no gambling legislation. Absence from a title list does not exclude gambling provisions buried within other Acts, which is why the Penal Code is the principal source.

The Penal Code

The Penal Code (Cap. 4.02), in the revision showing the law as at 1 January 2025, lists section 369, headed “Gambling”, within Part 26, “Nuisances and Other Offences Against the Public in General”. In the 2019 Revised Edition of the Penal Code, the same heading appeared as section 339 in Part 25, under the same Part title; the renumbering reflects sections added to the Code since 2019.

The full operative wording of section 369, including its definitions and penalties, could not be retrieved and verified for this guide: the published text of the Code could be examined only up to its early Parts, so only the section’s heading and its place in the Code were confirmed. Readers who need to know the precise scope of the offence, for example whether it covers private social games, raffles for charity, or participation as distinct from organisation, should consult the full text of the Code on the Government of Montserrat website or take local legal advice.

The Penal Code has been amended several times since 2019. The Penal Code (Amendment) Act 2022 (Act No. 12 of 2022), passed on 22 November 2022 and assented to on 29 November 2022, inserted a new Part 20A on cybercrime and amended provisions on weapons and other offences. None of its provisions concerns gambling. The Penal Code (Amendment) Act 2024 (Act No. 22 of 2024), passed on 24 July 2024 and assented to on 31 July 2024, revised the age of criminal responsibility and replaced and extended the fraud offences, including a new offence of obtaining services dishonestly. It does not amend the gambling section or refer to gambling, gaming or lotteries.

Licensing and tax statutes

Two other statutes might be expected to touch on gambling but do not. The Trade Licences Act (Cap. 15.02) requires merchants, hucksters and pedlars, and travelling agents to hold licences issued by the Accountant General, with merchant fees ranging from EC$25 to EC$300 by class. It contains no category for lottery agents, bookmakers, gaming machines or casinos. The Entertainment Tax Act (Cap. 17.11) charges a tax of 25 cents per person on paid admission to exhibitions, performances and amusements, but expressly excludes “any game or sport” from the definition of entertainment and makes no reference to gaming.

Regulator and licensing model

Montserrat has no gambling regulator. There is no gaming board, lottery commission or betting control authority, and no official register of gambling licensees. In the terms used in comparative gambling law, a licensing model allows private operators to obtain permission to offer gambling; a monopoly model reserves gambling to a state or statutory operator; and a prohibition model bans commercial gambling. Montserrat’s arrangements fall into the third category by default: no legislation creates a route to authorisation, and the Penal Code treats gambling as a matter of criminal law.

The territory’s financial regulator, the Financial Services Commission (FSC), describes itself as responsible for the licensing, supervision and regulation of financial service providers. Its powers derive from the Financial Services Commission Act (Cap. 11.02), originally Act 3 of 2008 and most recently amended in 2023. Section 4 sets out its functions, which include supervising financial institutions, deciding licence applications, monitoring compliance with anti-money-laundering and counter-terrorist-financing requirements and acting against unauthorised financial business. The Act makes no reference to gaming, and the FSC does not license gambling operators.

Because no gambling licences exist, there are no licence fees, application procedures, technical standards or approved-game lists to describe. Anyone proposing to establish a casino, betting operation or lottery in Montserrat would first require new primary legislation passed by the Legislative Assembly.

Online gambling and enforcement

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No Montserrat statute provides for the licensing of remote gambling, meaning gambling conducted over the internet, by telephone or by other means of remote communication. The territory does not issue online casino, sportsbook or poker licences, and it is not an offshore gaming licensing jurisdiction of the kind found in some other small Caribbean territories. No online gambling operator is therefore licensed in or by Montserrat.

The official sources reviewed for this guide do not show any specific statutory rule on whether residents may use online gambling services licensed abroad. Montserrat has not adopted measures that some other jurisdictions use against offshore operators, such as:

website blocking, in which internet service providers are directed to prevent access to listed gambling domains;
payment blocking, in which banks and payment institutions are instructed to refuse transactions with unlicensed operators; or
a published blacklist of unauthorised gambling sites.

No such list or direction was found on the websites of the Government of Montserrat or the Financial Services Commission. Whether section 369 of the Penal Code could apply to online play or to remote operators targeting the island depends on its wording, which could not be verified. In practice, the absence of a licensing regime means that any foreign operator accepting players from Montserrat is doing so without Montserrat authorisation and outside the supervision of any Montserrat authority.

No Montserrat legislation specific to gambling advertising was identified. General consumer and broadcasting rules may apply, but they were not reviewed for this guide.

Anti-money-laundering treatment

Casinos are among the “designated non-financial businesses and professions” (DNFBPs) that the international standards of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) require countries to supervise where they exist. Montserrat’s regime does not include them. The Anti-Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing Regulations 2024 (S.R.O. 12 of 2024), which repealed the 2010 Regulations (S.R.O. 27 of 2010), define the “service providers” subject to them as financial institutions, other persons carrying on business that requires a regulatory licence, trust or company service providers, independent legal professionals, real estate agents, accountancy or audit providers and high value dealers. Casinos and other gambling businesses are not named. The Proceeds of Crime Act (Cap. 4.04) defines “regulated business” by reference to those Regulations.

The Caribbean Financial Action Task Force (CFATF) assessed Montserrat in its fourth round of mutual evaluations, with an on-site visit from 8 to 19 April 2024. The CFATF report was adopted at the CFATF Plenary in Jamaica in December 2024 and published in January 2025; it is also available from the FATF. The report describes the DNFBP sector as six legal professionals, six accountants, three high value dealers, six real estate agents and three money lenders, with the FSC as the sole supervisory authority for DNFBPs. Gambling businesses do not appear in that description, which is consistent with the absence of a licensed gambling sector.

Position of players

The position of individuals who gamble in Montserrat cannot be stated with full precision, because the operative text of the Penal Code’s gambling section could not be verified. It could not be confirmed whether section 369 applies only to those who organise or host gambling or also to those who take part, whether it exempts private social games, or what penalties it carries. These points should be checked against the Code itself or with a Montserrat legal practitioner.

For online gambling, no statute was found that makes it an offence for a resident of Montserrat to place bets with an operator licensed abroad, and no record was found of any prosecution or fine of a player for doing so. Equally, no statute authorises such play. Players who use foreign sites have no recourse to a Montserrat regulator if a dispute arises over withdrawals, account closures or game fairness; their only protections are those offered by the operator’s home licensing authority, if any.

Players should also be aware that banks and payment providers operating in Montserrat are subject to the 2024 anti-money-laundering regulations and may ask about the source of funds, including gambling winnings, when large or unusual transactions occur.

Taxation

As no gambling operators are licensed, Montserrat has no gambling duty, gaming tax or betting levy. None of the revenue statutes identified in the 2025 Revised Edition is a gambling tax, and the Revenue Laws (Consequential Amendments) Act 2023 (Act No. 14 of 2023), which updated five revenue statutes following the enactment of a Tax Administration Act, did not touch gambling. The Entertainment Tax Act, described above, excludes games and sports from its scope.

The treatment of an individual’s gambling winnings under the Income and Corporation Tax Act (Cap. 17.01) was not confirmed from the sources reviewed. Residents with significant winnings, particularly from foreign operators, should seek advice from the Montserrat Customs and Revenue Service.

Consumer protection and responsible gambling

Montserrat has no statutory responsible gambling framework. Because no operators are licensed, there are no mandatory age checks, deposit limits, reality checks or self-exclusion registers imposed by Montserrat law, and no national self-exclusion scheme exists. No gambling-specific helpline based on the island was identified.

People affected by gambling harm can approach general health services. The Ministry of Health and Social Services lists a Mental Health Services unit at Government Headquarters, Brades, with the telephone number 664-491-4533. Those who use offshore gambling sites should note that any self-exclusion or deposit-limit tools available to them will be those provided by the operator or by its licensing authority abroad, not by any Montserrat body. General guidance on setting limits and recognising problem gambling is available in our responsible gambling guide.

Recent and upcoming developments

Anti-money-laundering regulations (2024). The Anti-Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing Regulations 2024 (S.R.O. 12 of 2024), made in 2024 under the Proceeds of Crime Act, set out the businesses subject to supervision. They do not extend supervision to gambling businesses.
CFATF mutual evaluation (2024–2025). According to the Government of Montserrat’s announcement of 27 January 2025, the territory was rated Compliant on 18 and Largely Compliant on 16 of the 40 FATF Recommendations, and Partially Compliant on 6. On the 11 effectiveness outcomes it received two Substantial, seven Moderate and two Low ratings. The government stated that Montserrat would not be placed on the FATF grey or black lists but must address the deficiencies identified, with progress monitored by the CFATF. The report’s description of the non-financial sector includes no gambling businesses.
2025 Revised Edition of the Laws. The Attorney General’s Chambers has published a revision showing the law as at 1 January 2025. As in 2019, it includes no gambling statute.
Legislation passed 2024–2026. The official lists of Acts passed in 2024, 2025 and 2026 contain no Act whose title concerns gambling, gaming, betting or lotteries. Recent legislation has instead addressed tourism, terrorist-financing sanctions, banking and, in 2026, a Payment System and Services Act.
No pending gambling bill identified. No bill or public consultation proposing a gambling, lottery or remote gaming regime was found as of October 2026.

Casino listings for players in Montserrat

The listings below are generated automatically from our casino database. Montserrat has no gambling licensing system and no register of licensed operators, so no online casino is licensed in Montserrat, and the listings do not show that any operator is authorised to serve residents. They must not be read as an indication that playing is lawful or that the operator is supervised by any Montserrat authority. Readers should check the licence and regulator named by each operator and review the territory’s Penal Code before playing.

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Key points

Top Rated Online Casinos for Montserrat

Historical development

Legal framework

Constitutional position

Revised Laws of Montserrat

The Penal Code

Licensing and tax statutes

Regulator and licensing model

Online gambling and enforcement

Anti-money-laundering treatment

Position of players

Taxation

Consumer protection and responsible gambling

Recent and upcoming developments

Casino listings for players in Montserrat

Related country guides

Sources and further reading

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