Gambling in Vatican City: Law, Lotteries and Online Play

Published by Casino News Daily editorial teamReviewed byFilip RadulovicOur editorial approach

Vatican City State has no gambling industry and no gambling regulator. There are no casinos, no betting shops, no state lottery for the public and no licensing regime for online gambling. The anti-money laundering evaluators of the Council of Europe recorded in 2021 that “casinos are legally forbidden” in the Holy See and Vatican City State (MONEYVAL, 2021, para. 81). Beyond that statement, the law is thin. Vatican City has no dedicated gambling statute; its criminal law still rests largely on the Italian Penal Code of 1889, received in 1929, which punished the keeping of games of chance in public places. The only recorded form of organised gaming is a series of charity lotteries run by the Governorate in the 2010s for the Pope’s charitable works. This guide sets out what the sources do and do not establish, how the surrounding Italian regime affects online gambling, and where the gaps in the public record lie.

Key points

No form of commercial gambling is licensed in Vatican City State, and MONEYVAL’s 2021 evaluation states that casinos are legally forbidden.
The 2008 Law on the Sources of Law confirms the 1889 Italian Penal Code, as received in 1929 and later amended, as the basis of Vatican criminal law; that code penalised keeping games of chance in public places.
There is no Vatican online gambling regime. Italy’s customs and monopolies agency (ADM) blocks unlicensed gambling websites through Italian internet providers, but we found no source on whether its orders reach networks inside Vatican City.
Vatican City State has no tax system, so there is no gambling tax and no tax on winnings under Vatican law.
The Supervisory and Financial Information Authority (ASIF) supervises the small financial sector for money laundering risks; MONEYVAL found no designated non-financial businesses, including casinos, operating in the jurisdiction.

Last reviewed: 14 October 2026.

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Historical development

Vatican City State was created by the Lateran Pacts, signed by the Holy See and the Kingdom of Italy on 11 February 1929. By Article 3 of the Treaty, Italy recognised the Holy See’s “full ownership” and “exclusive and absolute” power over the Vatican, and Article 4 provides that the sovereignty and exclusive jurisdiction recognised to the Holy See over Vatican City excludes any interference by the Italian government (Lateran Pacts, vatican.va). The new State therefore needed its own legal order from its first day.

Rather than draft complete codes, the founding legislation of 7 June 1929 borrowed from Italy. Law No. II of 1929 on the sources of law made canon law and the laws of the Pope the principal sources, and provided that, where they were silent, Italian laws would apply on a supplementary basis, provided they did not conflict with divine law, the general principles of canon law or the Lateran Pacts, and were applicable to conditions in the City. Article 4 of the same law adopted “the Penal Code of the Kingdom of Italy” then in force (Law No. II of 7 June 1929, WIPO Lex). That was the code of 30 June 1889, commonly known as the Zanardelli Code, and it remained the basis of Vatican criminal law after 1929.

The resulting system changed little for decades. Presenting the 2013 criminal law reforms, the Holy See’s Secretary for Relations with States said that the original penal system, “constituted by the Italian Penal Code on 30 June 1889”, had seen “only marginal modifications” (Holy See, Secretariat of State, 2013). Gambling never developed as an economic activity. MONEYVAL describes a territory of 0.44 square kilometres, with a population of around 620 people, just over 450 of them resident citizens, in which “there is no privately-owned real estate and no private business is carried on” (MONEYVAL, 2021).

Legal framework

Checking gambling legislation and licensing

Sources of law since 2008

The 1929 law was replaced by Law No. LXXI of 1 October 2008 on the sources of law, in force from 10 January 2009 (the replacement is recorded in the WIPO Lex entry for the 1929 law). An official consolidated text of the 2008 law was not accessible to us during research, so this section relies on secondary descriptions. According to a 2024 article in the Ecclesiastical Law Journal, the 2008 law (Article 1) treats the canonical order as “the primary source of Vatican law” and the main criterion for interpreting it. Italian laws may be adopted in matters not otherwise regulated, but only if they do not conflict with divine law, the general principles of canon law or the Lateran Pacts, and “Italian legislation does not have the force of law in the Vatican City unless it has been formally adopted” by the Pontifical Commission (Ecclesiastical Law Journal, 2024). The practical result is that Italian gambling legislation passed after 1929, including the rules on the Italian state lottery, betting and online gaming, does not apply inside Vatican City unless adopted, and we found no record of such adoption.

The penal code and games of chance

The 2008 law expressly continued the criminal rules of 1929. The Holy See’s 2013 presentation notes that the new law on sources of law “confirms the criminal legislation of 1929” (Holy See, 2013), and the 2024 article states that the provisions of the 1889 Italian Penal Code, adopted by the Vatican in 1929, “would still apply” (Ecclesiastical Law Journal, 2024). The 1889 code treated gambling as a contravention, a minor offence category. A 2021 academic chapter on Italian casino law, published by Genova University Press, quotes Article 484 of that code (the Zanardelli Code) as punishing “anyone who, in a public place or a place open to the public, keeps a game of chance (gioco d’azzardo), or provides premises for that purpose” with arrest of up to one month (up to two months for repeat offenders) and a fine of not less than 100 lire, with aggravating circumstances where the conduct was habitual or the keeper ran a public establishment (Genova University Press, 2021). We have not been able to check this wording against an original or official text of the 1889 code, so it should be read as a secondary quotation.

Three cautions apply. First, the provision targets the person who keeps the game or supplies the premises; we could not verify from an accessible primary text whether, or on what terms, the 1889 code also punished the participants. Second, Vatican penal law has been amended piecemeal, most substantially by two laws of 11 July 2013, and we could not locate an official consolidated text showing the current wording of the gaming provisions as applied in Vatican City. Third, the fines expressed in lire have been converted and adjusted over time, and we have not stated current amounts because none could be verified.

Constitutional framework

The constitutional basis of the State is its Fundamental Law. Pope Leo XIV promulgated a new Fundamental Law on 31 July 2026, which entered into force immediately and fully replaced the Fundamental Law of 13 May 2023 issued by Pope Francis (Article 25). It vests legislative power in the Pontifical Commission for Vatican City State, except where the Pope reserves it to himself, and provides for laws to be published in L’Osservatore Romano and the Supplement to the Acta Apostolicae Sedis (Fundamental Law of 31 July 2026). The accompanying explanatory note from the Governorate describes the Fundamental Law as the reference point for all other State legislation (Governorate note, 2026). Neither text contains rules on gambling.

Italian criminal jurisdiction can also be relevant. Under Article 22 of the Lateran Treaty, at the request of the Holy See, Italy may prosecute offences committed in Vatican City (Lateran Pacts). We found no instance of this mechanism being used for a gambling offence.

Regulator and licensing model

Vatican City follows what can be called a prohibition-by-absence model. A licensing model admits private operators under conditions; a monopoly model reserves gambling to one state-controlled operator. Vatican City has neither. No authority is charged with authorising or supervising gambling, no licences exist, and no operator, public or private, provides casino games, betting or a public lottery.

The clearest official statement comes from MONEYVAL, the Council of Europe’s committee of experts on anti-money laundering measures. Its fifth-round Mutual Evaluation Report, adopted at the plenary of 26–30 April 2021, states that “casinos are legally forbidden in the HS/VCS” (para. 81) and that the anti-money laundering law applies to the activities covered by the Financial Action Task Force definitions “except casinos which are forbidden” (para. 86). It adds that no designated non-financial businesses or professions (DNFBPs, the category that includes casinos, real estate agents and dealers in precious metals) operate in the jurisdiction, and describes “a public monopoly regime within the territorial jurisdiction”, with no private business and “no tax system” (para. 51) (MONEYVAL, 2021).

The Supervisory and Financial Information Authority (Autorità di Supervisione e Informazione Finanziaria, ASIF) is the body most closely connected to any future gambling risk, because it is the financial intelligence and supervisory authority. MONEYVAL records that only one entity has been authorised by ASIF to carry out financial activities, and that this institution is supervised by ASIF and does not serve the general public (MONEYVAL, 2021). ASIF’s report for 2025, as summarised by Vatican News in April 2026, recorded 78 suspicious activity reports, 16 reports passed to the Office of the Promoter of Justice and three transactions worth about EUR 522,000 suspended; the summary makes no reference to gambling (Vatican News, 30 April 2026).

Charity lotteries

The one documented exception to the absence of gaming is a charity lottery organised by the Governorate of Vatican City State. Reporting by the Italian Catholic daily Avvenire describes an edition drawn on 7 January 2015 at the Governorate building, with tickets at EUR 10 sold at Vatican outlets such as the pharmacy, post office counters, the Vatican Museums and the pilgrims’ office. The prizes were gifts that had been given to the Pope, and the whole proceeds went to his charitable works (Avvenire, 2015). In November 2017 Avvenire reported the fifth consecutive edition, with tickets also available online through the Vatican City State website and a draw scheduled for 2 February 2018 (Avvenire, 2017).

These lotteries were occasional fundraising events rather than a commercial lottery. The reports we found do not state the legal basis on which they were authorised, and we found no reports of editions after the one drawn in 2018. Their existence shows that a prize draw organised by the State authorities for charitable purposes has been treated as permissible, but it does not indicate that private lotteries or other gambling are lawful.

Online gambling and the Italian position

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Vatican law contains no provisions authorising online gambling and no regime for licensing, blocking or taxing it. We found no Vatican measure addressed specifically to internet gambling, no list of prohibited websites and no published enforcement action. Whether the 1889 gaming contravention, written for physical premises, could apply to a remote service has not, as far as we could find, been considered by a Vatican court or authority.

Vatican City is an enclave within Rome, so the Italian regime forms the practical background. In Italy, remote gambling may be offered only by operators holding a concession from the Customs and Monopolies Agency (Agenzia delle Dogane e dei Monopoli, ADM). The ADM orders Italian internet service providers to block access to unlicensed gambling websites and redirect traffic to an address it designates. Its orders cite Law No. 296 of 27 December 2006, Article 1, paragraphs 50 to 50-quater, and implementing decrees, and the complete list of blocked sites is published on the ADM website (ADM blocking order, 3 March 2020). In October 2023 the ADM announced 76 further blocks, which it said would bring the number of domains blocked in the first ten months of that year to 491, with monitoring carried out daily with its technology partner SOGEI (ADM, 27 October 2023).

Italian law also targets advertising and participation. A February 2024 ADM statement explains that promoting illegal gambling sites is an offence under Law No. 401 of 13 December 1989, that Decree-Law No. 87 of 12 July 2018 prohibits gambling advertising with cash prizes, and that participating in bets collected by unlicensed operators is punishable with a fine and arrest of up to three months (ADM, 28 February 2024).

How far this reaches into Vatican City is uncertain. Italian blocking orders are addressed to Italian providers, and Italian criminal law applies on Italian territory. Article 4 of the Lateran Treaty excludes interference by the Italian government in Vatican City. We found no official source on whether connections within Vatican City are routed through providers bound by ADM orders, or on whether Italian-licensed operators accept customers resident in Vatican City. These points could not be verified and should not be assumed either way.

Position of players

No Vatican source we reviewed creates a specific offence of gambling online, and we found no record of any person being prosecuted in Vatican City for playing games of chance, online or offline. The 1889 provision, as quoted in the 2021 academic chapter, is aimed at those who keep a game in a public place or supply premises for it (Genova University Press, 2021). That does not make online gambling lawful: no operator is licensed to offer gambling in Vatican City, the State provides no consumer protection or dispute resolution for gambling, and the residual criminal rules have not been tested in this field.

Vatican City has a resident population of only a few hundred people. Anyone physically in Italy is subject to Italian law, under which only ADM-licensed operators may lawfully offer remote gambling and participation in bets with unlicensed operators is itself an offence. Readers in any doubt about their own situation should take independent legal advice.

Taxation

Because no gambling is licensed, there is no gambling tax on operators and no Vatican rule on the taxation of winnings. More fundamentally, MONEYVAL records that “there is no tax system” in Vatican City State (MONEYVAL, 2021). In April 2015 the Holy See’s Secretary for Relations with States noted, when presenting the Holy See–Italy Convention on tax matters, that neither the Holy See nor Vatican City State has tax legislation in the strict sense or a tax system; the Convention provides for exchange of information with Italy and leaves unchanged the exemption under Article 17 of the Lateran Treaty (Holy See, Secretariat of State, 2015).

Article 17 provides that salaries of any kind paid by the Holy See and the other central bodies of the Catholic Church to their officials and employees are exempt from Italian taxes from 1 January 1929 (Lateran Pacts). The exemption concerns salaries; it says nothing about gambling winnings. The Italian tax treatment of winnings falls outside the scope of this guide.

Consumer protection and responsible gambling

Vatican City has no gambling-specific consumer protection framework, self-exclusion register or helpline, which is consistent with the absence of a gambling market. There is no authority to which a player could complain about an online operator, and no mechanism for recovering stakes or unpaid winnings.

Support services in Italy are close at hand. The National Green Telephone Line for gambling problems (Telefono Verde Nazionale per le problematiche legate al Gioco d’Azzardo), run by the Istituto Superiore di Sanità, Italy’s national public health institute, is described by the Institute as a national, anonymous and free telephone counselling service. The line, 800 558822, operates Monday to Friday from 10:00 to 16:00, and the same site lists treatment services and self-assessment tests (Istituto Superiore di Sanità, Uscire dal gioco). We could not confirm whether people resident in Vatican City can use Italian self-exclusion arrangements. General guidance is available in our responsible gambling guide.

Catholic moral teaching is relevant context for a State whose sovereign is the Pope, but it is not a legal rule. The Catechism of the Catholic Church states in paragraph 2413 that “games of chance (card games, etc.) or wagers are not in themselves contrary to justice”. The same paragraph explains that they become morally unacceptable when they deprive someone of what is necessary for his own needs or those of others, warns that the passion for gambling risks becoming an enslavement, and treats unfair wagers and cheating at games as grave matter unless the damage inflicted is so slight that the person harmed cannot reasonably consider it significant (Catechism, para. 2413).

Recent and upcoming developments

MONEYVAL follow-up (May 2024). MONEYVAL adopted the first regular follow-up report on the Holy See (including Vatican City State) at its 67th plenary in Strasbourg in May 2024. According to the Holy See Press Office, an improved rating was given for all the recommendations the jurisdiction asked to have re-assessed. The next technical compliance assessment was expected in about four years, probably within MONEYVAL’s sixth evaluation round (Holy See Press Office, 28 May 2024).
ASIF annual report (April 2026). ASIF’s report for 2025 recorded 78 suspicious activity reports and referred to the upcoming MONEYVAL evaluation cycle (Vatican News, 2026). A new evaluation would be likely to revisit the position on casinos and DNFBPs.
Fundamental Law (2023 and 2026). A Fundamental Law issued by Pope Francis on 13 May 2023 was replaced by one promulgated by Pope Leo XIV on 31 July 2026 (Fundamental Law, 2026). Neither changed the position on gambling.
No gambling legislation. We found no bill, consultation or announced plan from 2023 to 2026 to introduce or regulate any form of gambling in Vatican City State.

Casino listings for players in Vatican City

The listings below are generated automatically from our casino database. No operator is licensed to offer gambling in Vatican City State, there is no regulator or register to check, and casinos are legally forbidden there according to MONEYVAL. The listings must not be read as an indication that offering or playing online casino games in Vatican City is lawful. Readers located in Italy should check that an operator holds an ADM concession.

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Key points

Top Rated Online Casinos for Vatican

Historical development

Legal framework

Sources of law since 2008

The penal code and games of chance

Constitutional framework

Regulator and licensing model

Charity lotteries

Online gambling and the Italian position

Position of players

Taxation

Consumer protection and responsible gambling

Recent and upcoming developments

Casino listings for players in Vatican City

Related country guides

Sources and further reading

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