Online Casinos in Pakistan

The Legal Position

No Pakistani body licenses or supervises online casino play, and Pakistan's statute book is anti-gambling at both the levels on which it legislates. Federally, the official Pakistan Code published by the Ministry of Law and Justice carries the Prevention of Gambling Act, 1977 and the Public Gambling Act, 1867; both are published there as PDFs and neither is quoted, so nothing is said here about what they provide. Provincially, each province has its own gambling statute, and the one set out here is the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Prevention of Gambling Ordinance, 1978, on the official Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Code. What follows is the law of that one province.

What the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Ordinance Says

The Ordinance is introduced as "AN ORDINANCE to provide for the prevention of gambling." Its first section names it the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Prevention of Gambling Ordinance, 1978, provides that "It extends to the whole of the Province of the [Khyber Pakhtunkhwa]", and gives 15 March 1978 as the date it came into force. It repealed its predecessor: "The West Pakistan Prevention of Gambling Ordinance, 1961 (W.P. Ord No. I of 1961), is hereby repealed." It also takes priority over other law - "This Ordinance shall have effect notwithstanding any thing contained in any other law for the time being in force" - and its offences are non-bailable.

Its definitions are wide. "Gaming" is defined to include "wagering or betting, including a wager or bet made in respect of any horse, mare or gelding running in competition with any other horse, mare or gelding, or of the rider thereof". A "Common gaming-house" "means any house, room, tent, enclosure, vehicle, vessel or other place whatsoever in which any instruments of gaming are kept or used for gaming purpose", and one limb of that definition applies "with or without a view of such profit or gain, if the gaming for the purpose of which such instruments are so kept or used is gaming on any figures or numbers or dates to be subsequently ascertained or disclosed, or on the occurrence or non-occurrence of any natural event".

The offences reach the player as well as the house. Section 5 makes a person "found gaming in any public place, street or thoroughfare" liable to imprisonment of up to three years, or a fine of up to two thousand rupees, or both. Section 6 does the same for private places: a person "found gaming in any house, room, tent, enclosure, vehicle vessel or other Place" is liable to imprisonment of up to five years, or a fine of up to five thousand rupees, or both. Those figures stand in square brackets in the Code, which is how it marks the amendments that set them. A further evidential provision removes a defence that might otherwise be assumed: "In a prosecution under sub-section (1), it shall not be necessary to prove that the person found playing was playing for any money, wager or stake."

Why Online Is Not a Separate Question

The Ordinance predates the internet and does not mention it. Its reach does not depend on the medium, though: the offence in section 6 is committed by a person found gaming in any house, room, enclosure, vehicle, vessel or other place whatsoever, and the definition of gaming is wagering or betting at large. On the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Ordinance, gaming at home is not outside the prohibition.

In many countries an anti-gambling law reaches only the operator of the game. The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Ordinance does not stop there: section 6 makes a person found gaming in a private place an offender in their own right, and it is expressly unnecessary to prove that the person found playing was playing for money, a wager or a stake. That is the position under the one provincial statute set out here. No other province's statute is described here, and neither federal Act is quoted, so nothing is said about what they provide.

What Is Available Instead

Nothing is established as available. No Pakistani body licenses or supervises online casino play, and the statute book is anti-gambling federally and provincially alike. In Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, gaming is defined to include wagering or betting — horse racing among it — and section 6 reaches a person found gaming in a private place. Nothing is said here about the two federal Acts or the other provinces, because neither was quoted.