Online casino legal countries

Countries Where Online Gambling Is Legal in

Depending on whom you ask, there are around “official” countries in the world. In most of these, gambling – in some form or another – is legal. However, online gambling is generally less available at the domestic level than brick-and-mortar gambling.

Confusing things further, some nations have regional rules where online casinos, sports betting sites, and poker rooms are legal in some states or areas and illegal in others (as in the USA, where each state makes its own gambling laws). Thus, it’s difficult to have a comprehensive list of countries where online betting is % legal and safe for everyone.

Also, in some areas, online betting is legal but limited to domestic vendors instead of offshore international vendors. The UK is a great example of this, as the nation has dozens of online betting brands and Internet-connected gambling kiosks on every corner, but all legit offshore casinos are banned.

Simply put, though, if you see a country listed in our online gambling legal countries list, it’s safe and legal to use any of our recommended offshore betting sites within its borders. That’s as straightforward as it gets!

Countries Where Online Gambling Is Illegal

Just as there are many countries that allow gambling online domestically or offshore, there are many countries that don’t. However, it’s difficult to assemble a completely up-to-date list of countries that ban online gambling because their laws are always changing. Also, operators (of varying legitimacy) are always testing new loopholes and workarounds.

Our rule, of course, is simple: If a given country has made online gambling illegal, we do not recommend trying to gamble online anyway.

If you understand the laws of your country very well and assess the risk as minimal, you’re certainly free to bet over the Internet all you wish. However, if you’re just looking to get started and aren’t extremely familiar with the online gambling laws in your area, you should study those long and hard before you ever try to bet online.

Gambling is a great pastime, but it’s not worth losing your livelihood or going to jail over.

Legal Gambling Countries By Region

No matter where you are in this big blue world, chances are that there’s some legal online gambling going on near you. There are a few exceptions, of course, but legit online casinos, legit online sportsbooks, and legit online poker sites are available globally.

Not every country in a particular region allows its citizens and residents to place real-money bets online, but many do. The most notable and gambling-friendly of these nations are featured below, sorted by geographic region.

• United States (North America)
• Canada (North America)
• Puerto Rico (North America)
• Mexico (Central America)
• Brazil (South America)
• South Africa (Africa)
• Germany (Europe)
• Ireland (Europe)
• India (Asia)
• Philippines (Asia)
• Australia (Oceania)

Note: Again, not all legit online gambling sites will accept members from all legal online gambling countries. See the next section for some tips and tricks about how to assess legality of your chosen online betting venue if you’re not sure about the laws in your area.

Online Gambling Laws By Country

Each country has different online gambling laws, which is to be expected. However, if you’re not familiar with the gambling laws in a particular country – or state, municipality, etc. within a particular country – it can be easy to run afoul of local mandates.

And that’s a problem because many countries are far more strict about unlawful online gaming enforcement than others. Also, many countries target allparties involved in illegitimate online gambling, while others go after only those unregulated operators who provide the illicit services (as is the case in the United States).

How To Ensure Online Gambling Is Legal In Your Country

While we’ll add some overarching international gaming laws to this section as they apply to each major online gambling country, the safest thing for you to do is to look up any relevant local mandates for yourself.

Barring that, there’s a pretty good trick you can use to figure out which countries ban gambling online and which countries allow it:

1. Navigate to an international trusted online gambling site by following any link on this page.
2. Make sure you’re using a non-shielded IP address so the site knows you’re accessing it from the country you’re actually in.
3. If the site lets you in, chances are that you’re in a legal gambling country as far as that specific operator is concerned. Note: Not all operators will offer their online casino games, sports betting odds, and live poker tables to residents of a given country even if online gambling is legal in that country. Every site has its own service policies and active business regions on top of any local or national-level gambling laws in place.
4. To make sure you haven’t just been able to access your chosen betting site by some technical fluke (and that you’ll actually be able to receive your money when you submit a payout request down the road), head over to your site’s terms of service (TOS) page and search for any “restricted” regions.
5. If you don’t see your country on the list of restricted states/nations, you should be good to go.