Egypt Parliament Seeks to Punish Online Gambling with Up to Life in Prison
Egypt’s parliament is preparing amendments to the Cybercrime Law that would explicitly criminalise online betting applications. After the amendments gambling penalties according to senior MPs, could reach life imprisonment in the most serious cases.
Egypt has long prohibited gambling for its own citizens. Despite this, its rules were written for physical venues, not for online betting. The country is now working on terms and laws to restrict online gambling as well.
Gambling Laws in Egypt so Far!
In Egypt the Civil Code voids gambling contracts while the Penal Code criminalises gambling activity. Thirdly Hotel-casino legislation allows only a narrow exception for foreign passport holders in licensed casinos.
These three leave a very narrow space for locals and any other interested gamblers to play. Online gambling remains illegal for locals, but enforcement has lagged. Many Egyptians still use offshore sportsbooks through VPNs and foreign payment channels. Existing laws do not address online gambling directly. That gap has been the focus of years of parliamentary complaints about Arabic-language platforms operating from foreign licences.
In May 2026, Ahmed Badawi, chair of the House Communications and Information Technology Committee, said the government is expected to submit amendments to the Cybercrime Law. Those amendments would explicitly criminalise online betting applications.
The proposed amendments will name electronic gambling explicitly and introduce much tougher penalties, with maximum sentences. In the most serious cases involving organised criminal networks and large-scale fraud, life imprisonment will be the punishment.
Blocking Foreign Firms
Russian-licensed 1xBet, which had promoted itself heavily in Egypt via influencers and social media, was blocked on Google Play and the App Store in September 2024. This is after a wave of complaints and recommendations from parliament’s communications committee.
In early 2026, Badawi said similar action was being taken to shut down MelBet as part of a broader takedown campaign against online betting apps.
Badawi has repeatedly stressed that the aim is not to block technology in general but to shut down harmful services. In one interview, he said that blocked betting apps will not be allowed to return. He also emphasized on the new legislation being drafted with tougher penalties to close the loopholes that allowed them to spread in the first place.
MP Martha Mahrous Penalty Structure!
In January 2025, MP Martha Mahrous, tabled her own bill to criminalise electronic betting. In a television interview, she said the spread of electronic betting had become extremely dangerous and argued that existing law does not explicitly deal with online betting. Well, not beyond a single Penal Code article on gambling that she termed as inadequate.
She said,“We are facing a kind of addiction, and scientifically we treat the young person as addicted to these practices.”
Her draft, published by local media, sets out a three-tier structure: Agents and de facto managers acting for bettors would face two to five years’ imprisonment and fines of EGP1 million ($20,099) to EGP5 million. Two, payment facilitators up to six months’ imprisonment and fines between EGP50,000 and EGP200,000. Thirdly, those running, sponsoring or implementing platforms two to five years’ imprisonment and fines from EGP5 million to EGP10 million.
Read Also: Egypt Tightens Digital Controls With Ban on Online Betting Apps
Badawi has since confirmed that the government is preparing its own amendments rather than simply adopting the Mahrous text.
If the government follows Mahrous’s template, even loosely, Egypt will likely end up with one of the toughest online betting regimes in the region. Operators, local agents and payment facilitators could face multi-year prison terms and multi-million-pound fines on top of the existing blocking campaign.
