UAE iGaming Framework 2026: GCGRA, Wynn, Play971

The United Arab Emirates has built a licensed commercial gaming market almost from nothing since September 2023, and it already includes a $5.7 billion casino resort under construction in Ras Al Khaimah, a federally licensed online sportsbook headquartered in Abu Dhabi, and a national lottery, all under one federal regulator that has a new chief executive.

Gambling remains a criminal offense under UAE federal law across most of the country. The General Commercial Gaming Regulatory Authority (GCGRA), created in September 2023, is the only body that can license an exception, and three years in it has issued licenses one at a time rather than opened the market broadly.

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A federal carve-out, not a national opening

The GCGRA holds sole authority to license commercial gaming anywhere in the UAE. Outside a GCGRA license, gambling is still prohibited under the federal Penal Code (Federal Decree-Law No. 31 of 2021) and the Cybercrime Law (Federal Decree-Law No. 34 of 2021).

The UAE’s new Civil Transactions Law, Federal Decree-Law No. 25 of 2025, took effect June 1, 2026, and dropped the gambling and betting articles, numbers 1012 to 1021, that the previous civil code carried, according to law firm Greenberg Traurig. The removal takes old civil rules on voided bets and loss recovery out of the code, a step meant to let the government align the Penal Code and Cybercrime Law with GCGRA regulation instead of general civil law.

What’s allowed, emirate by emirate

GCGRA licenses are federal, not issued by or tied to a particular emirate, and a license lets its holder serve customers anywhere in the UAE, not only where it is based. So far, though, only two licensed products exist, and each happens to sit in a different emirate. The one land-based license covers a single physical site: the Wynn Al Marjan Island casino resort under construction in Ras Al Khaimah, held by Island 3 AMI FZ-LLC, the Wynn Resorts joint venture. The one internet gaming and sports wagering license belongs to Coin Technology Projects LLC, headquartered in Abu Dhabi, which runs the Play971 platform for users across the UAE, subject to GCGRA’s own restrictions on specific areas. Outside those two licensed products, commercial gambling remains illegal everywhere in the country, in every emirate, including inside Ras Al Khaimah and Abu Dhabi themselves for anything the license doesn’t cover.

Wynn’s bet on being first

Wynn Resorts owns 40% of the Wynn Al Marjan Island joint venture; Ras Al Khaimah developer Marjan and RAK Hospitality Holding hold the rest, according to Wynn’s own investor disclosures. The company secured the UAE’s first commercial gaming facility license in October 2024, the first for a casino; the GCGRA had already issued its first license overall, for the national lottery, three months earlier. Wynn later closed a $2.4 billion, seven-year construction financing facility with a syndicate of global lenders.

Wynn Al Marjan Island: UAE Casino Licence Timeline

The resort’s cost has since risen to about $5.7 billion, up $600 million, and the opening has slipped from an initial first-quarter 2027 target to September 2027. Wynn CEO Craig Billings told analysts on the company’s Q2 2026 earnings call, as reported by Gulf Business, that the numbers still justify it:

“In terms of relative returns, I think the highest relative return that we can quantify now is absolutely in the UAE on Al Marjan Island.”

In the same remarks, Billings credited the regulator’s existence with giving lenders more confidence in the project. When complete, the resort will have 1,530 keys across 70 floors, including 297 suites, two royal apartments and ten marina estates, and will hold a monopoly on UAE casino gaming for at least the next few years.

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A lottery, a sportsbook and the suppliers behind them

The GCGRA issued its first license in July 2024, to The Game LLC to run the UAE Lottery, branded Wataniya, built on lottery technology from Scientific Games. GCGRA chairman Jim Murren called it a foundational moment for the regulator in the authority’s July 2024 announcement:

“The launch of the UAE Lottery is a pivotal event that not only marks the establishment of a disciplined world-class regulatory framework.”

Play971, operated by Coin Technology Projects LLC out of Abu Dhabi, launched on December 15, 2025, as the GCGRA’s 19th license overall, according to Khaleej Times. The platform runs sports wagering on football, basketball, cricket, tennis and horse racing alongside online slots, roulette, blackjack, baccarat, craps, poker, bingo and esports betting; players must be at least 21 and physically located in the UAE to use it. The GCGRA’s own licensee register also lists supplier licenses held by platform aggregator Hub88 Holdings and sports data provider Sportradar AG, among more than twenty gaming-related vendors approved to serve the market.

Every company the GCGRA has licensed

The GCGRA publishes a running register of every entity it has licensed, by category. As of this article, it lists 26 licensees:

UAE builds B2B base with 21 GCGRA Gaming Vendors

New leadership, wider regulatory ties

Founding GCGRA CEO Kevin Mullally left the role in November 2025. GCGRA chairman Jim Murren, a former MGM Resorts chief executive, took over as interim CEO, and the authority credited Mullally, in its own November 2025 announcement, with establishing its “core governance and regulatory structure.” Murren ran the authority until June 2026, when the GCGRA named Ciarán Carruthers, previously CEO of Australia’s Crown Resorts and formerly an executive at Wynn Macau, as permanent chief executive. Carruthers said in the GCGRA’s June 2026 announcement:

“I am honoured to join GCGRA and contribute to the continued development of the UAE’s regulatory framework for commercial gaming. The UAE is establishing itself as a global benchmark for modern and responsible gaming regulation, and I look forward to working closely with the team, licensees, and government partners to deliver on that ambition.”

Carruthers moved fast on cross-agency coordination. On August 14, 2026, the GCGRA signed a memorandum of understanding with the Financial Services Regulatory Authority (FSRA) of Abu Dhabi Global Market, covering supervisory coordination, investigative assistance and information sharing between the two regulators. Carruthers said in the joint announcement:

“The UAE’s reputation as a well-regulated jurisdiction rests on regulators working in step with one another, and this agreement gives that relationship a formal foundation to build on.”

Wynn Al Marjan Island’s September 2027 opening will be the first real test of whether a single casino resort, operating under one federal license, can turn a profit while gambling stays banned nationwide outside the handful of products the GCGRA has approved.

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Whether the GCGRA licenses a second casino, or expands online gaming beyond Coin Technology Projects LLC, will decide how far that exception reaches next.

Source: General Commercial Gaming Regulatory Authority (GCGRA)