Egypt’s parliament is preparing amendments to the Cybercrime Law that would explicitly criminalise online betting applications, with maximum sentences that could reach life imprisonment for offences involving organised criminal networks.
Ahmed Badawi, chair of the House Communications and Information Technology Committee, confirmed in May 2026 that the government is preparing its own amendments to the Cybercrime Law. He said the text will name electronic gambling explicitly and introduce penalties that, in the most serious cases, could include life sentences — a significant escalation from any existing provision in Egyptian law.
A legal gap that parliament has complained about for years
Egypt has prohibited gambling for its own citizens for decades, but its statute book was written for physical venues. The Civil Code voids gambling contracts. The Penal Code criminalises gambling activity. Hotel-casino legislation carves out a narrow exception for foreign passport holders in licensed casinos. None of those instruments addresses online gambling directly.
That gap has allowed offshore sportsbooks to operate from foreign licences, targeting Egyptian users through Arabic-language platforms, VPN access and foreign payment channels. Enforcement has lagged accordingly. Badawi’s committee has raised the issue repeatedly, and the proposed cybercrime amendments are the government’s response to years of parliamentary pressure to close it.
Blocking campaign already under way
Legislative action is running alongside an active blocking campaign. In February 2026, Badawi said the National Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (NTRA) and the Supreme Council for Media Regulation were working to block approximately 80% of online betting applications, based on technical reports prepared with his committee.
Russian-licensed 1xBet, which had promoted itself heavily in Egypt through influencers and social media, was removed from Google Play and the App Store in September 2024 following a wave of complaints and recommendations from the communications committee. In early 2026, Badawi said similar steps were being taken against MelBet as part of a broader takedown campaign.
Badawi has been consistent on one point: blocked apps will not be allowed to return. The legislation under preparation is intended to provide the dedicated digital enforcement tool that existing law does not supply.
How penalties might be structured
The clearest indication of the likely penalty framework comes from a parallel initiative inside the same committee. In January 2025, MP Martha Mahrous, its deputy chair, tabled a bill to criminalise electronic betting. In a television interview, she said existing law — which includes a single Penal Code article on gambling — does not adequately address the online dimension.
We are facing a kind of addiction, and scientifically we treat the young person as addicted to these practices.
The Mahrous draft sets out a three-tier structure. Agents and de facto managers acting for bettors would face two to five years’ imprisonment and fines of EGP 1 million ($20,099) to EGP 5 million. Payment facilitators would face up to six months’ imprisonment and fines between EGP 50,000 and EGP 200,000, subject to a knowledge-based standard of liability. Those running, sponsoring or implementing platforms would face two to five years’ imprisonment and fines from EGP 5 million to EGP 10 million.
Badawi has since confirmed the government is preparing its own text rather than adopting the Mahrous bill directly. The two instruments are not identical, and the Mahrous draft has not advanced to a full House debate. Badawi’s outline for the executive amendments raises the prospect of life sentences for the worst digital gambling offences — penalties that exceed the Mahrous cap of five years.
This distinction matters. If the government follows a tiered approach similar to Mahrous’s template, Egypt would end up with one of the toughest online betting regimes in the region. If the most serious tier is reserved for offences involving organised criminal networks and large-scale fraud, everyday users may face a different exposure — though early drafts point to the possibility of fines for users who continue to access banned apps. No official text spelling out user-side liability has been published.
Open questions before the law takes shape
Several issues remain unresolved. VPN access — which allows users to reach blocked sites — is not addressed in publicly available drafts, and it is unclear whether the amendments will create liability for users who circumvent blocks. Banks and electronic payment providers have not publicly explained how they would apply a knowledge-based facilitation standard in practice.
The House journal had not set a specific schedule for tabling or voting on the government’s amendments as of late June 2026. Badawi had previously indicated the text would be submitted to parliament after Eid al-Adha — the major Islamic holiday that fell in June — but no draft appeared on the agenda or was set for debate in that window.
Egypt is not alone in the region in moving to close the enforcement gap on illegal online betting. Turkey has accelerated its own illegal gambling crackdown under parallel reforms, and the broader pattern of MENA governments updating legacy gambling prohibitions to cover digital channels is consistent with what Global Compliance Intelligence estimated as $5.9 trillion in unregulated online gambling activity in 2025.
For offshore sportsbooks and their local partners, Egypt’s direction of travel is clear even before a final text exists: a long-standing prohibition that was loosely enforced online is moving toward a dedicated criminal statute, backed by an active blocking campaign and penalty proposals that include life imprisonment at the top end.
Source: Egyptian House of Representatives
