Gambling license in the UAE
Commercial gaming in the Emirates answers to one federal authority, and it licenses companies and people separately. We will say which licences your group needs and build the structure they require.
Minimum gaming age
Возраст для игры
21 years
21 год
Minimum lottery age
Возраст для лотереи
18 years
18 лет
In-principle payment
Взнос на входе
10% of licence fee
10% от пошлины
Control starts at
Контроль — от
15% of the company
15% компании
When you need a gambling license in the UAE
Your platform reaches players here
Internet gaming counts when it is conducted inside the country, on any device. Where the servers sit does not move the activity out of the federal regulator's reach.
Your product mixes skill and chance
Adding skill alongside chance does not take a paid game with a money prize out of the definition. The authority decides that question itself.
You supply equipment, not games
Suppliers of gaming equipment and the services around it hold their own category of licence. Selling into a licensed operator without one is the vendor's problem too.
Your directors need licences too
Directors, executive officers and controllers apply in their own names, and so do employees involved in running the games. A company licence does not cover them.
Your promotion looks like a lottery
A prize draw stays a promotion while the prize is a marketing cost and the product sells at fair market value. Inflate the price around the prize and it becomes licensable.
What you get
- A straight answer on which categories your group needs
- The domestic entity question settled before the intake form
- Owners and key persons prepared for a suitability review
- Testing routed to a laboratory the authority recognises
- Advertising and responsible-gaming duties written into the product
What is required for a gambling license in the UAE
Commercial gaming in the country answers to one federal authority. The General Commercial Gaming Regulatory Authority was established in September 2023 under Federal Law by Decree No. 30 of 2022 on regulating commercial gaming, sits in Abu Dhabi, and holds exclusive jurisdiction over every commercial gaming activity and facility in the Emirates.
Commercial gaming means a game of chance, or of chance combined with skill, in which money is wagered to win money or other value. Four activities fall under it: lottery, internet gaming, sports wagering and land-based facilities. Carrying any of them on unlicensed is unlawful, and the prohibition reaches players too.
A free zone licence does not answer this question. Zone and financial-centre regulators keep their own mandates: in August 2026 the financial regulator of Abu Dhabi Global Market signed a cooperation agreement with the gaming authority precisely because the two perimeters meet. The gaming licence still comes federally, alongside the permits local entities require. Everything else we do here is on the UAE page; the practice around it is Licensing & Compliance.
Five categories of licence
Gaming operators
Internet gaming platforms, sports wagering, land-based facilities, the lottery itself and lottery retailers. A group running several of these needs the licence for each.
Gaming-related vendors
Suppliers of gaming equipment and of the goods and services around it. Studios and platform providers land here rather than in the operator category.
Key persons, corporate
Companies with decision-making roles in the ownership chain: controllers, affiliates and management services providers. They apply as entities, separately from the operator.
Key persons, individual
Directors and executive officers of the operator or vendor, directors of a controller, directors and officers of an affiliate. Each files in their own name.
Gaming employees
Occupational licences in two levels: level one for supervisory roles, level two for everyone else involved in running the games.
What the country adds on top
An operator applicant must have a relationship with a qualifying domestic entity: a local company with substantial business operations here, which also meets conditions on financial standing and operating history. This requirement decides your structure and is settled before the file is built.
Control is tested at fifteen per cent of economic or voting rights, held or capable of being acquired, and equally by the power to appoint or remove a majority of the board. Everyone who crosses that line becomes an applicant.
Games and systems are tested against technical standards drawn from the GLI series, and certification comes from an independent laboratory the authority approves. Four are named at present; a certificate from anywhere else does not count.
Advertising has its own standards. They treat anyone under eighteen as underage for lottery and under twenty-one for everything else; a request to stop direct marketing is honoured within forty-eight hours; and the policy for the third parties you advertise through goes to the authority once a year for approval. Responsible-gaming programmes are audited at least every two years.
Sources: the authority's pages on licence types, process and legislation; its licensing guide of 1 May 2024; its advertising standards, version 1.0 of 27 February 2024.
Stages of work
Reading the product against the definition
The federal definition turns on a stake in money and a prize in money or other value, and skill in the mix does not rescue a product from it. Everything below waits on that answer.
Deciding the categories and the people
Which licences the group needs, who crosses the fifteen per cent line, which officers file in their own names and which employees need an occupational licence.
Building the domestic side of the structure
The qualifying domestic entity, the ownership chain above it and the roles inside it are set up first, so the authority reviews the structure you intend to keep.
The intake form and initial screening
The first filing names the licences sought, the people behind them and the emirate you want to work in. If you are eligible, the licensing portal opens to you.
The full application and its fee
Corporate papers, the chart of related entities, accounts, key persons, legal history and the responsible-gaming plan go in through the portal. The application fee precedes access and is never returned.
In-principle approval
Ten per cent of the licence fee buys approval in principle, and that is what lets you incorporate, obtain permits and visas and open bank accounts here.
Suitability, and the licence itself
The review tests identity and ownership, finances, integrity, competence and criminal history. After the intent to issue, the remaining fee is paid and the licence is granted.
Opening, and the duties that follow
A pre-opening checklist is completed, a certificate of operation is issued and play begins. Then: periodic reporting, the yearly maintenance payment, notice before material changes.
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