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UAE prepares to legalize online casinos and sports betting for the first time

A historic shift is coming to the UAE's gaming landscape. With nearly half the population already betting, will legal platforms finally replace the shadows?

The image shows a man playing a slot machine with the words "Jackpot" on it. He is surrounded by a...
The image shows a man playing a slot machine with the words "Jackpot" on it. He is surrounded by a board with text and pictures of fruits, suggesting that he is playing online casino games.

UAE prepares to legalize online casinos and sports betting for the first time

Something similar may finally be happening in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) with industry executive and insider Jad Moubarak raising an important point on his LinkedIn profile:

"The UAE is cracking down hard on unregulated gaming websites this week, with many major platforms being blocked in the last few days. This can only mean one thing. Who's going to come in and lead the charge? Exciting times ahead for the gaming industry in the region." - Jad Moubarak

Moubarak drew attention to the fact that the gambling regulator and authorities have been engaged in blocking illegally operating online casino websites that target the UAE, which could mean "only one thing" - that regulated platforms may be coming in to fill the vacuum.

Whether this is actually true remains subject to speculation, but there is some reason to believe it might actually be true. For one, the newly-established regulator, the General Commercial Gaming Regulatory Authority (GCGRA) has already published information on its website that application for iGaming licenses may actually be possible.

GCGRA May Be Edging Closer to Issuing iGaming Licenses

However, no further details - including the timeline - have been clarified. Moubarak thinks that because there have been intense crackdowns over the past days, as he puts it, this ought to mean that the GCGRA is finally looking forward to opening a public tender for licenses and possibly granting some.

There is demand for this already. According to various research, as many as 41% of people in the UAE are already betting on sports, with iGaming numbers not immediately clear. Online casinos may be coming soon as Moubarak suggests, but there is also the possibility that the GCGRA is not keen to move in too early on this particular vertical.

In the meantime, vendors have been arriving in the Emirates, with IGT recently obtaining a permit from the GCGRA to bring its portfolio locally.

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