Legal Gambling By Country - Is Online Gambling Legal In Your Country?
Gambling is one of the oldest pastimes in the world, and it’s just getting more popular as time goes by. Today, with legal Internet gambling available in so many international jurisdictions, gambling accessibility has never been better. Of course, not all countries are legal online gambling countries, and it’s important to know the laws of the land before you sign up and play your hand.
Whether you’re gambling in America or Canada, gambling in South America, gambling in European countries, gambling in Asia or Southeast Asian countries, gambling in Africa or Australia, or gambling anywhere else, you’ll need a basic understanding of your county’s online betting rules before you sign up. The regions featured here are the top gambling countries in the world as of 2022 in terms of online access, but there’s still some fine print to sort through.
Best International Online Gambling Sites For 2024
As we grow out this section of our website, you will find access to gambling sites that are accepted world wide and available to bettors in most countries. Our intention is to provide you with a comprehensive international guide to legal online gambling that points you to options available in your region. We are in the process of gathering this information and are excited about extending our reach beyond the USA online gambling markets.
If you live in the USA - then what you see below give you access to some true industry leaders in legal online gambling in the US. For those of you in other areas of the world, we will soon be listing some great online gambling options that speak directly to you and your neck of the woods. Check back soon for updated data!
Bovada Sportsbook
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Bovada Poker
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Bovada Casino
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Slots.lv
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MyBookie
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Cafe Casino
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BetOnline
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Countries Where Online Gambling Is Legal in 2024
Depending on whom you ask, there are around 200 “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 100% 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 2024
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 all parties 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:
- Navigate to an international trusted online gambling site by following any link on this page.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- If you don’t see your country on the list of restricted states/nations, you should be good to go.
VPN Gambling In Countries That Ban Online Gambling
If you live in a country where access to online casinos is blocked or otherwise legally outlawed, it might be tempting to use a VPN for gambling. VPNs – or Virtual Private Networks – are apps that allow you to spoof your IP address to make the site your accessing think the traffic is coming from a different region.
VPN services are commonly used to prevent online trackers from accessing a user’s private data, and they give users a generally more secure and private online browsing experience. VPNs are perfectly legal.
However, while using a VPB for online gambling will work, there are risks. The biggest risk is that VPNs violate some legit online betting sites’ terms and conditions. When it’s time to claim a payout, you might have to prove your identity using various industry-standard KYC protocols. If you’ve been using a VPN and live in a blocked region, you won’t receive your payout, and your account may even be suspended or terminated.
As such, unless a particular site specifically allows VPN use for members so they can gamble when traveling internationally (and there are a few of those!), we advise avoiding gambling behind VPN services altogether.
Is It Legal To Use A VPN To Gamble Online?
There is nothing illegal about using a VPN service when gambling online unless your country or state/region/municipality explicitly outlaws online gambling. In that case, please do not use a VPN to circumvent online betting laws.
However, if you live in a country where offshore online gambling is legal, using a VPN to enhance your privacy is a valid option provided the betting site allows it. If your site doesn’t allow VPN use, you won’t be breaking the law by participating behind a VPN, but you run the risk of having your account suspended or terminated.
Also, if your country has domestic online gambling options in some regions and not in others (as is the case in the United States), you should never try to use a VPN to bet online. Such betting services are geofenced and use geolocating/GPS-restricting technology to ensure that you’re physically located inside an authorized gaming region.
In such cases, you may be breaking the law by using a VPN service to bet from a restricted area.
What Is The Best VPN For Legal Online Gambling?
If gambling is legal in your country and your chosen site allows for international access via VPN connections, the best VPN for online gambling will be any reputable program that’s established itself in the industry.
You should never pay more than about $5 a month for legit VPN software.
These are some of our favorites:
- Proton VPN - Most Reliable
- NordVPN
- Private Internet Access (PIA)
- IPVanish
- Surfshark
- ProtonVPN
- ExpressVPN
- MozillaVPN