Egypt plans to include online betting restrictions in digital safety bill
The proposed law would extend beyond blocking apps to cover betting brokers and people who promote platforms, a parliamentary committee chair said.
Key points
- The government is expected to send the Digital Safety Law to Parliament in about six weeks.
- The proposed rules would target betting brokers, representatives and platform promoters.
- Authorities had blocked 70 betting apps by May, according to Ahmed Badawi.
- Egypt has no licensed online gambling market, and the draft law has not yet been published.
Egypt plans to address online betting in a broader Digital Safety Law that the government is expected to send to Parliament in about six weeks, parliamentary committee chair Ahmed Badawi said on 1 November.
The proposed law would target betting brokers and their representatives in Egypt, as well as people who promote platforms or help citizens access them, iGaming Business reported, citing Youm7.
Badawi chairs the House of Representatives’ Communications and Information Technology Committee. He said the proposed measures would go beyond blocking websites and apps, as people behind blocked apps continue to launch new platforms.
The government has not published the draft Digital Safety Law, leaving the scope of its betting provisions unclear. Badawi told Al-Nahar that it would incorporate planned amendments to the Cybercrime Law No. 175 of 2018, alongside measures concerning children’s social media use and adults’ exposure to technology risks.
In May, Badawi said amendments to the cybercrime law would reach Parliament within a month. The bill did not arrive. The proposed amendments included prison sentences of up to seven years and fines of EGP500,000 for creating an app used in cybercrime, Saraya News reported, citing Al Arabiya.
Egypt has mainly relied on blocking betting platforms. In February, Badawi said his committee would work with the National Telecom Regulatory Authority and the Supreme Council for Media Regulation to identify and block illegally operating betting apps. By May, authorities had blocked 70 apps, he said, according to Al-Nahar.
Egypt has no licensed online gambling market. Its Civil Code makes gambling contracts void, while the Penal Code targets gambling premises. Under the 2022 hotel and tourism law, only foreign passport holders may play in licensed hotel casinos.
Separately, the Interior Ministry said on 3 November that its public funds and organised crime unit had taken legal action against four suspects accused of laundering about EGP50m from betting and cryptocurrency speculation. The ministry did not say whether the betting took place online.
Sources
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