Gambling in Nauru: Laws, Licensing and Online Casinos

Published by Casino News Daily editorial teamReviewed byFilip RadulovicOur editorial approach

Nauru, a single raised coral island in the central Pacific with a population of about 12,500, regulates gambling through a licensing system set out in the Gaming Act 2011. The Act does not ban gambling outright. Instead, it makes every game of chance played for money unlawful unless it is licensed by the government, authorised by another law or falls within narrow exemptions for private games and small raffles. Licences are available for bingo, sports betting, lotteries, gaming machines and table games, and are issued per premises or per event. The Act says nothing about online or remote gambling, and Nauru has no regulator, licence category or blocking regime for internet gambling. Nauru’s courts have found both organisers and participants guilty of offences involving unlicensed games. This guide sets out the history, legislation, licensing model, position of players, taxation, safeguards and recent developments.

Key points

The Gaming Act 2011 (Act No. 17 of 2011) is the principal gambling statute. It replaced earlier laws on street betting, sporting pools and bingo.
Licences are issued by the Secretary (the head of the responsible government department) for bingo, betting, lotteries, gaming machines and table games. Annual fees range from A$2,500 to A$10,000 per premises under the 2016 fee schedule.
Participating knowingly in an unlawful game is an offence with a maximum penalty, as stated in the Act, of A$10,000 and six months’ imprisonment; the Supreme Court has held that these are maxima, not mandatory sentences. Players have been prosecuted.
No law licenses or specifically prohibits online gambling, and no website blocking or payment blocking regime for gambling was found.
A 2024 anti-money laundering evaluation by the Asia/Pacific Group on Money Laundering (APG) found one licensed gaming operator in Nauru and rated its money laundering risk as low.

Last reviewed: 13 October 2026.

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Historical development

Before 2011, Nauru regulated gambling through a set of short, specific statutes rather than a single code. The repeal provisions of the Gaming Act 2011 show what existed before it: the Sporting Pools Act 1968, the Street Betting Act 1970 and the Bingo Licensing Act 2008, together with gaming and lottery provisions in the Criminal Code 1899, which was then Nauru’s principal criminal statute (Gaming Act 2011, ss 32 and 37 and Schedule 2).

The Bingo Licensing Act 2008 (Act No. 6 of 2008), in force from 1 August 2008, illustrates the earlier approach. Any bingo game offering cash or valuable prizes required a licence from the Secretary, applied for at least three working days before the game. The licence fee was 20% of the total value of the prizes offered. Running an unlicensed game was punishable by a fine of A$5,000 plus an amount equal to the prize value.

The Gaming Act 2011 consolidated these laws into one licensing framework. In 2018 the District Court described the purpose of the Act as being “to control gaming in Nauru and to generate income for the Republic” ([2018] NRDC 10), adding that the income comes from licensing fees. That dual purpose, control and revenue, explains the shape of the system described below.

Nauru’s history as an offshore financial centre is relevant background to how gambling is now treated for anti-money laundering purposes. According to the APG’s 2024 mutual evaluation report, in the early 1990s Nauru made provision for registering offshore banks and other corporations. The government later revoked the licences of hundreds of registered banks, the Bank of Nauru closed in 2006, and the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) listed Nauru as a non-cooperative country or territory from June 2000 to October 2005. No evidence was found that Nauru has ever issued offshore gambling licences of the kind offered by some other small jurisdictions.

Legal framework

Checking gambling legislation and licensing

Nauru’s legislation is published on the government’s legislation portal, RONLAW, and on the Pacific Islands Legal Information Institute (PacLII). The texts relied on in this guide are the PacLII versions.

The Gaming Act 2011

The Gaming Act 2011 was certified on 3 November 2011 and took effect one month after certification (s 2). Its central concept is the unlawful game: a game of chance, or of mixed chance and skill, in which money or another valuable thing is staked or offered as a prize, and which is not an exempt game (s 3). The Act separately defines:

gaming machine: a device designed for a game of chance or mixed chance and skill that pays out money or tokens, or registers a right to money or money’s worth;
lottery: a scheme, other than bingo, in which success depends on numbers, tickets or tokens drawn or determined by chance;
betting: placing or accepting bets; and
table game: one of the games listed in Schedule 1, which include baccarat, blackjack, poker, roulette, craps, sic bo, pai gow, fan-tan and two-up.

Under section 4, a game is exempt if it is conducted under a gaming licence, authorised under another written law, an exempt private game, or a raffle or karti (a local card game) whose total prizes are below a prescribed amount. The Gaming Regulations 2011 (S.L. No. 7 of 2011) set that amount at A$250. An exempt private game must be conducted otherwise than for a commercial purpose and must give every participant the same chance of winning. A game is treated as commercial if an entry fee is charged (other than to cover food or drink) or if a commission or fee is taken from bets or winnings (s 4(3)).

Offences

Part 3 of the Act creates the main offences. The penalties are maxima:

Offence	Section	Maximum penalty
Arranging unlawful gaming or betting	s 17	A$50,000 and 2 years’ imprisonment
Conducting unlawful gaming or betting	s 18	A$50,000 and 2 years’ imprisonment
Being in charge of a place knowingly used for unlawful gaming or betting	s 19	A$10,000 and 6 months’ imprisonment
Advertising or promoting unlawful gaming or betting	s 20	A$10,000 and 6 months’ imprisonment
Knowingly participating in unlawful gaming or betting	s 21	A$10,000 and 6 months’ imprisonment
Licensee failing to comply with a licence condition	s 22	A$20,000 and 12 months’ imprisonment

The Act also gives authorised officers and the police powers of entry and search (ss 24 to 29), and allows complaints about licensees to be made to the Secretary (s 30).

The Crimes Act 2016

Nauru’s general criminal law is now the Crimes Act 2016 (Act No. 18 of 2016). Section 4 provides that the only offences under Nauruan law are those created by or under that Act or another Act. The parts of the Crimes Act reviewed for this guide contain no specific gambling offences; gambling offences are found in the Gaming Act. The Crimes Act remains relevant to sentencing: in 2019 the Supreme Court held that its general sentencing powers, including discharge without conviction, apply to Gaming Act offences (see Position of players below).

Regulator and licensing model

Nauru follows a licensing model: gambling is lawful only when a licence has been granted, but there is no cap on the number of licences and no state monopoly. There is no independent gambling regulator. Applications are decided by the Secretary, defined in the Act as the head of department, and a refused applicant can seek review by the Minister (ss 5, 6 and 23).

Section 5(1) provides for licences in five categories: bingo; betting on sports or other events; lotteries; games played on gaming machines; and one or more table games. Before granting a licence, the Secretary must be satisfied that the applicant is suitable, having regard to character and financial position, and that the rules of the game are fair, reasonable and easy for participants to understand (ss 6 and 7). Sports betting may be licensed only if betting on the event is lawful where the event takes place. An applicant is treated as unsuitable if a licence was refused or cancelled in the previous 12 months, or if it contravened the Act in the previous five years. Licences attach to specified places and may cover a period or a single event; bingo licences are available for single events only (ss 8 to 10).

Licensees must ensure that the game is run by a person aged at least 18 and that every participant is at least 18 (s 10). The Secretary may vary conditions, suspend or cancel a licence, and must cancel it if the licensee is convicted of breaching a licence condition or ceases to be suitable (ss 12 and 13). Fees may be waived for raffles and karti run for charitable purposes, if the licensee discloses the purpose and the minimum share of funds that will go to it (s 14).

Licence fees

Fees are set by regulation. The current schedule was substituted by the Gaming (Amendment) Regulations 2016 (S.L. No. 22 of 2016), notified in the Government Gazette of 9 September 2016. It replaced the schedule set by the Gaming (Amendment) Regulations 2012.

Game	Licence period	Fee from 2012	Fee from September 2016
Bingo	Single event	15% of total prizes	15% of total prizes, or A$100 for prizes of minimal value
Sports or event betting	Single event / 12 months	A$250 / A$5,000 per premises	A$250 / A$10,000 per premises
Lottery	Single event / 12 months	A$250 / A$2,500 per premises	A$250 / A$5,000 per premises
Gaming machines	12 months	A$2,500 per premises	A$5,000 per premises
Table games	Single event / 12 months	A$250 / A$2,500 per premises	A$250 / A$2,500 per premises

Nauru does not publish a register of licensees. The APG’s 2024 evaluation reported that there was one gaming operator in Nauru, holding a gaming licence. Nauru’s 2023 national risk assessment, quoted in the report, described it as an entity operating slot machines that “has been treated in Nauru as casinos” for anti-money laundering purposes. The report describes its transaction values as small and its customers as mostly local. No other licensed gaming operator, state lottery or state-owned gambling operator was identified in the sources reviewed. Whether lottery products from other countries are sold on the island could not be verified.

Online gambling

Online casino games on mobile devices

The Gaming Act 2011 does not mention online, internet or remote gambling. Its licensing provisions are tied to physical places: licences are granted for premises, and the offence in section 19 concerns a place used for unlawful gaming. No Nauruan licence for online casinos, online betting or online lotteries exists, and no proposal to create one was found in the official sources reviewed for this guide.

Two consequences follow. First, an operator cannot obtain a Nauruan licence to offer online gambling, whether to residents or abroad. Second, the legal status of a resident playing on a foreign website is not addressed expressly. The definition of an unlawful game is not limited by medium, so a game of chance played for money that is not licensed or exempt under Nauruan law is, on the face of the Act, an unlawful game. How the Act’s place-based provisions would apply to a website based outside Nauru has not, so far as could be found, been tested in the courts. This guide therefore does not state that online play by residents is either clearly lawful or clearly unlawful.

Nauru has no gambling-specific enforcement regime for the internet. No list of blocked gambling websites, no direction to internet service providers to block domains, and no restriction on payments to gambling sites was found. Section 20 of the Gaming Act, which prohibits advertising or promoting unlawful gaming or betting, could in principle apply to promotion within Nauru of unlicensed services, but no enforcement action of that kind was found. Payment options are also limited by Nauru’s financial structure: the APG reported in 2024 that the country uses the Australian dollar, has no central bank and no domestic banking sector, and has a single money or value transfer service provider.

Position of players

Nauru is one of the jurisdictions in which the player, not only the organiser, can commit a gambling offence. Section 21 makes it an offence to participate knowingly in unlawful gaming or betting, with a maximum penalty of a A$10,000 fine and six months’ imprisonment. The section has been enforced.

On 17 February 2018, during Chinese New Year celebrations, police raided premises in the Location compound in Denig District and found people playing mahjong for money. No gaming licence was held. Fourteen people were charged under section 21, and police seized about A$66,559. In a ruling that the defendants had a case to answer, the District Court rejected the argument that the game was an exempt private game, holding that the evidence was “overwhelming that it was a large-scale gambling operation” ([2018] NRDC 7). All 14 defendants were found guilty on 30 November 2018, and the cases were transferred to the Supreme Court for sentencing.

In [2019] NRSC 4 (18 March 2019), the Supreme Court held that the penalties in section 21 are maxima, not mandatory sentences. For sentencing purposes it found that the game was an annual event held without secrecy and not for commercial purposes, and that a conviction would be “out of proportion to the gravity of the offending”. Thirteen of the 14 defendants were discharged without conviction on condition that each paid A$1,000 in costs within 30 days. A separate prosecution arising from an earlier raid at the same premises (dated February 2015 in the charges) led the District Court in November 2018 to convict the owner of the premises of conducting unlawful gaming, being in charge of a place used for it and participating in it ([2018] NRDC 10).

These cases establish three points. Playing an unlicensed game for money in Nauru can lead to prosecution of players. The exemption for private games is read narrowly, with regard to the revenue purpose of the Act. And courts retain discretion over the sentence. No prosecution of a resident for gambling online was found.

Taxation

The Gaming Act 2011 does not impose a gambling duty or a tax on gross gaming revenue (GGR, meaning stakes less winnings paid out). The state’s revenue from gambling comes through licence fees, which, as the District Court noted in 2018, the Act was designed to generate. Business tax applies generally to persons conducting business in Nauru. According to the Nauru Revenue Office’s guide to the Business Tax Act, business tax took effect on 1 July 2016. It comprises a business profits tax on persons conducting business in Nauru, a small business tax of 2.5% of quarterly gross revenue for certain non-resident individuals, and a 20% non-resident tax on Nauru-sourced interest, royalties and insurance premiums. Resident individuals pay no business profits tax on the first A$250,000 of taxable income.

No provision taxing gambling winnings in the hands of players was found. The business tax guide does not mention gaming, prizes or winnings. Readers with a specific tax question should contact the Nauru Revenue Office.

Consumer protection and responsible gambling

Consumer protection under Nauruan law rests mainly on the licensing conditions in the Gaming Act:

Minimum age: licensees must ensure that participants and those running the game are at least 18 (s 10).
Fair rules: a licence may be granted only if the rules of the game are fair, reasonable and easy to understand (s 6).
Suitability: applicants are assessed on character and financial position (s 7).
Prize security: regulations may require a bond, held by the Republic, as security for prize money (s 31).
Complaints: any person may complain about a licensee to the Secretary (s 30).

No national self-exclusion scheme, gambling helpline or problem-gambling support organisation in Nauru was found. Anti-money laundering rules also apply: under the AML-TFS Act 2023, the gaming operator is a reporting entity supervised by the Nauru Financial Intelligence Unit, and it was inspected on site in 2023, according to the APG report. Australian services such as Gambling Help Online offer 24-hour online chat and email counselling, although they are designed for people in Australia. General guidance is available in our responsible gambling guide.

Recent and upcoming developments

Anti-money laundering legislation (2023–2024). Nauru adopted new anti-money laundering legislation in 2023, referred to in the APG report as the AML-TFS Act 2023, and an amending Act in 2024. The APG found that the Act covers all entities within the FATF definitions of financial institutions and designated non-financial businesses and professions, which includes casinos.
APG mutual evaluation (2024). The evaluation, based on an on-site visit from 9 to 16 October 2023, was adopted at the APG annual meeting in September 2024. It rated Nauru’s effectiveness as moderate to low despite a relatively high level of technical compliance, and assessed the risk associated with the gaming operator as low.
Follow-up report (2025). In its 2025 follow-up report, the APG upgraded Nauru on Recommendation 29 (financial intelligence units) from partially compliant to compliant, leaving 38 of the 40 FATF Recommendations rated compliant or largely compliant.
Citizenship by investment (from November 2024). Nauru launched an Economic and Climate Resilience Citizenship Program at the COP29 climate conference in November 2024, with fees starting at US$105,000 for a single applicant (Jiang, Australian National University). It is not a gambling measure.
Gambling legislation. The most recent change to the gambling rules found was the 2016 fee schedule. As at 13 October 2026, no bill to license or prohibit online gambling, and no amendment to the Gaming Act 2011, was found in the sources reviewed.

Casino listings for players in Nauru

The listings below are generated automatically from our casino database. They do not show that an operator is licensed in Nauru. Nauru does not license online casinos, there is no Nauruan register of online operators to check, and participating knowingly in unlicensed gambling is an offence under section 21 of the Gaming Act 2011. The listings must not be read as an indication that playing is lawful. See the Gaming Act 2011.

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Key points

Top Rated Online Casinos for Nauru

Historical development

Legal framework

The Gaming Act 2011

Offences

The Crimes Act 2016

Regulator and licensing model

Licence fees

Online gambling

Position of players

Taxation

Consumer protection and responsible gambling

Recent and upcoming developments

Casino listings for players in Nauru

Related country guides

Sources and further reading

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