Online Casinos in Kuwait

Nothing Is Licensed, and the Penal Code Is Still Being Amended

There is no Kuwaiti gambling regulator and no licensing regime for casino play; nothing published by any Kuwaiti ministry, regulator or court sets one out. The criminal law is the Penal Code, issued as Law No. 16 of 1960, and the Ministry of Justice’s own index of legislation shows it is both live and still being changed: Decree-Law No. 65 of 2025 amends it, and Law No. 70 of 2025 repeals its articles 159 and 182. Which of its articles deal with gambling, and what they carry, is not stated on this page.

The State’s Religious Position, Which Is Not the Criminal Law

Kuwait’s Fatwa Department, part of the Ministry of Awqaf and Islamic Affairs, publishes its own rulings, and gambling appears in them as forbidden. Writing on recreation in Islam, the department puts among the impermissible amusements what reads in translation as amusing oneself with forbidden games such as backgammon and gambling, and other things the Sharia texts have prohibited. Elsewhere it describes the stream of public questions it receives about the many forms of gambling, which are sometimes dressed in a Sharia-compliant guise. Both renderings are translations of the department’s Arabic. A ruling published by a government department is evidence of the state’s official religious position; it is not the criminal law, and nothing here treats it as though it were.

Websites Can Be Blocked, but Gambling Is Not Named

Kuwait’s Communication and Information Technology Regulatory Authority runs a public service for requesting that web content be blocked. In its own English, it “receives requests to block web content that contradicts public interest. This includes public morals, the teachings of the Islamic faith, public order, and other prohibited content under the laws of the state of Kuwait.” The statute that established the authority puts the machinery on the licensed operators, obliging a licensee to provide and install the devices, equipment, software, computers and all the techniques and technology capable of preventing and blocking infringing material, links and websites. Gambling is named in neither text, so this page does not claim that gambling sites are in fact blocked in Kuwait.

What Remains Open

The question a reader most wants answered — which article of the Penal Code covers gambling, and what penalty it carries — remains open here. Kuwait's legislation is published by the Fatwa and Legislation Department, a different body from the Ministry of Awqaf's Fatwa Department above. No prosecution, no enforcement statement and no site-blocking decision touching gambling appears on any Kuwaiti government page. No Kuwaiti problem-gambling helpline appears on any government page either, so no number is printed.