UAE Lottery Launches First Online Casino Despite Gambling Ban

• UAE lottery operator quietly launches TrueWin online casino platform.
• Move clashes with Islamic bans yet fits diversification strategy.
• Regulators, Wynn projects signal controlled push toward Gulf gaming hub.

 The United Arab Emirates’ (UAE) lottery operator, Momentum, has quietly launched an online casino platform in the Middle Eastern country – that’s despite gambling being formally prohibited under UAE law.

And religiously, gambling is strictly haram – or forbidden – among the Muslim faithful.

The new platform, “TrueWin,” offers online roulette, blackjack, slots, poker, and live dealer tables, as well as sports betting across regionally popular games like soccer, cricket, and tennis.

Momentum has begun migrating users from an older platform, Dream Island, which functioned mainly as a low-risk lottery-style prize-draw site rather than a real-money casino or sportsbook.

While grey-market gambling sites do target the UAE, they are routinely blocked or restricted by the government – to varying degrees of effect. Now fully launched, TrueWin is the first openly operating, locally accessible online gambling platform in the UAE and the entire Arab Peninsula.

So, what gives?

Delicate Balance

In November 2024, Momentum launched the first legal lottery in the region, which is licensed by the UAE’s federal government, and open to all irrespective of nationality or religion.

That was controversial in itself. The Quran describes games of chance as a “grave sin” and “abominations of Satan’s handiwork.”

It’s also a wealthy authoritarian petrostate that realizes its oil will run out one day and it must diversify its economy. And very little goes on in the UAE, a highly centralized state, without the tacit approval of the government.

In September 2023, the government established the General Commercial Gaming Regulatory Authority (GCGRA) in response to Wynn Resorts’ pledge to build a $5.1 billion casino hotel in Ras Al Khaimah, the country’s northernmost emirate.

The GCGRA has not yet developed a framework of regulation for online casino gaming – yet. But you don’t establish a gambling regulator with a mandate to regulate casinos and sports betting, staffed by ex–US state gaming commissioners, unless you’re preparing for a controlled opening of the gambling sector.

Unprecedented Move

It appears that the government is testing the waters as it prepares to loosen its gambling laws to an extent that would be unprecedented for the region.

And the rewards, which must be balanced with managing religious and social sensibilities, are huge.

Analysts from Bloomberg Intelligence predict that gaming revenue in the UAE could reach US$6.6 billion if the Wynn project goes ahead as expected and another integrated resort is added in Dubai or Abu Dhabi. That would surpass established powerhouse markets like Singapore.