Online gambling in Saudi Arabia
Saudi Arabia is known by some as “The Land of the Two Holy Mosques” because of the fact that it is home to the two holiest places in Islam – Mecca and Medina. The country is governed by Islamic law, and has adopted the Qur’an as its constitution. Consequently, all forms of gambling, whether terrestrial or Internet, are prohibited. And these prohibitions are enforced strictly. According to the Democracy Index published by The Economist the Saudi government is the 7th most authoritarian regime in the world.
With regard to the Internet, this authoritarianism is manifested in strict censorship. According to Wiki, Saudi Arabia is listed by Paris based free press organisation Reporters sans frontières as one of the world’s 12 “enemies of the Internet” while the OpenNet Initiative categorizes their net filtering practices as Substantial (2nd strongest category).
All international Internet traffic is directed through a proxy farm in King Abdulaziz City for Science & Technology where software (licensed from McAfee) filters all content for local consumption in accordance with the government’s ISU (Internet Services Unit) directives. Those directives include a block on gambling (in addition to pornography, drug use, religious conversion of Muslims, and of course filtering-circumvention tools and a long list of other content types).
Saudi gamblers wanting to play at live online casino from their homes certainly have their work cut out for them. But interestingly, most live casinos do welcome Saudi players.
Best live casino for Saudi players
The below casinos accept players from Saudi Arabia and offer in USD (no Saudi riyal) deposit/account keeping options.
 Casinos |
 Player access |
 Banking |
 Toll free support |
 Local language |
 Games |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Read review | Visit |
No restrictions | No deposit restrictions. Maintain account in USD |
Yes | YES | European based dealer room with Euro centric games, high limits & Arabic dealers |
 Read review | Visit |
No restrictions | No deposit restrictions. Maintain account in USD |
No | No | European based dealer room with high limits & Arabic dealers |
 Read review | Visit |
No restrictions | No deposit restrictions. Maintain account in USD |
No | No | EU and Asian based studios and big game range |
