Countries Where Gambling is Legal: Laws and Jurisdictions

The regulation of online gambling in the U.S. sits at the state level, but to understand how it got there, you’ve got to look back. In 1961, the Federal Wire Act was passed to stop organized crime from running sports bets across state lines by phone. This law later became the basis for online gambling, even though the internet wasn’t even a thing back then.

Fast forward to the late ’90s and early 2000s — online gambling takes off. Sportsbooks and casinos licensed by offshore gambling jurisdictions start taking bets from U.S. players. But regulators can’t go after the sites, so they target the payments. That’s where the 2006 UIGEA came in. It made it illegal for banks to move money tied to unlawful online betting. But for players, gambling on internationally-licensed sites was never against the law.

Then in 2011, things shifted. The DOJ said the Wire Act only applies to sports betting, which opened the door for states to legalize online poker and casino games. Another big moment came in 2018, when the Supreme Court struck down PASPA. That ruling let states decide for themselves whether to allow sports betting, which until then was mostly restricted to Nevada.

The Criminal Code of Canada has banned gambling for decades, but in 1985, the federal government handed over control to the provinces. That gave them full say over how, when, and if gambling could happen within their own borders. By the early 2000s, provinces like BC and Quebec were already running their own government-backed gambling sites with online slots, lottery games, and poker.

The big shift came in 2021 with Bill C-218. It amended the Criminal Code to allow single-event sports betting — before that, Canadians could only bet on parlays.

Ontario took things further. In April 2022, it became the first province to launch a fully regulated open market under iGaming Ontario, letting private operators run online casinos and sportsbooks as long as they held a provincial license. No other province has followed suit so far. Alberta and Manitoba stuck with government-run sites, and the rest haven’t launched full online gambling platforms at all.

That gap naturally pushes millions of residents to play on CA sites licensed in other online gambling jurisdictions. And while those platforms aren’t regulated locally, players using them aren’t breaking any laws either.

The UK passed the Gambling Act in 2005 to replace a patchwork of older laws and catch up with the rise of online gambling. It created one unified system for everything — online and offline — and set up the UK Gambling Commission (UKGC) to run the show.

The UKGC’s role is to license operators, enforce rules, protect players, and work to keep gambling free from crime. It’s the only body that can issue gambling licenses in England, Scotland, and Wales. It also oversees marketing, anti-money laundering rules, and game fairness. Any company offering its services in the UK, whether based locally or overseas, needs a UKGC license to fully comply with gambling laws in Great Britain.

Of course, that only applies to the operators. Players, on the other hand, aren’t restricted and can choose freely between UKGC and offshore-licensed gambling sites.

Northern Ireland didn’t adopt the 2005 Act. It still runs under a 1985 law that wasn’t built with online gambling in mind, so it’s handled separately.

Australia’s setup is a bit of a hybrid. Federal law decides what’s allowed online, while state law handles who gets licensed to offer it. The problem is, there aren’t many options, which is why a lot of people end up using AU offshore-licensed sites.

Under the Interactive Gambling Act 2001, it’s illegal to offer online casino games like slots, blackjack, or any form of online poker to players in Australia. Sports betting is allowed, but under strict rules. For example, in-play bets are banned online. You can only place those over the phone or in person.

Countries across Asia handle things on their own. There’s no shared legal framework, and the rules can be wildly different depending on where you are.

Gambling laws in India, for example, are fragmented and state-based. There is the Public Gambling Act of 1867, though that’s massively outdated. It doesn’t even touch online play, which makes sense because it came out before electricity was common. Each state decides for itself. For instance:

• Sikkim and Nagaland have issued licenses for online betting or games of skill.
• Goa allows land-based casinos.
• Telangana and Andhra Pradesh ban all forms of online gambling.

Countries like Japan have very tight gambling laws. Online casino gaming and sports betting are banned, and the government has even looked at blocking offshore sites. Technically, it’s illegal for players to use them too, even if the site’s based abroad. Penalties are possible, but in practice, enforcement is rare and pretty selective.