Online Gambling Legality: Central Asia, Argentina, Indonesia

The legal status of online gambling varies dramatically from country to country — from full legalization with licensing to criminal liability for organizing or promoting it. We cover the current picture across seven countries: five Central Asian states, plus Argentina and Indonesia, where regulation is structured in fundamentally different ways.

Comparative infographic by region

A conditional "strictness" scale — from a full ban to a fully licensed legal market.

🏛Uzbekistan: legalized since 2025, but no licenses issued yet

Until 2024, gambling was banned in the country. In April 2024, a decree was signed legalizing gambling and bookmaking, and as of January 1, 2025, the industry officially left the "grey" zone. The regulator is the National Agency for Perspective Projects (NAPP), responsible for licensing and oversight of responsible gambling.

An important nuance: legalizing the industry doesn't mean every individual operator is legal. Only companies holding an NAPP license may operate in the country; unlicensed activity, including by foreign operators, is punished with fines and blocking. Gambling advertising is strictly regulated by a separate advertising law.

⚖Tajikistan: land-based casinos banned, online not separately regulated

Casino and gaming-hall operations were shut down by presidential decree back in 2000, primarily due to tax-law violations. Running an illegal gambling business falls under the country's Criminal Code, with severe liability. The law does not currently contain separate regulation of online gambling as its own segment.

⚖Kazakhstan: land-based casinos by license, internet casinos directly banned

The industry is regulated by the Gambling Business Law since 2007. Land-based casinos and slot halls are permitted only under license and only within designated gambling zones. At the same time, operating an electronic (internet) casino is directly banned across the entire country, regardless of any foreign license the operator may hold. Separately, licensed bookmaker sites under the .KZ domain, registered with tax authorities, are allowed — this is not the same as an internet casino.

🛂Kyrgyzstan: legalized in 2022, with a citizenship restriction

After a decade-long ban, gambling was legalized in 2022. Casinos may operate only in designated zones and may serve foreign citizens exclusively — a visitor's citizenship is checked through a state digital ID system. The online segment is still being formed as a separate set of rules.

🔒Turkmenistan: a closed regulatory regime

There is very little public, verifiable information about online gambling regulation — the country is known as one of the most closed regulatory regimes in the region overall. The lack of open data is itself a signal that any activity in this jurisdiction requires individual legal review.

🗺Argentina: not one law, but 24 different markets

Argentina works fundamentally differently: there is no single national online gambling law — regulation is delegated to the 23 provinces and the autonomous city of Buenos Aires. The base principle is that gambling is banned unless expressly authorized by a specific provincial authority. As of 2026, 23 of the country's 24 jurisdictions regulate online gambling in some form; the exception is Santiago del Estero, where online betting is expressly banned.

Licenses are issued for varying terms — for example, 5 years in the City of Buenos Aires and up to 15 years in Córdoba and Buenos Aires Province. Only an operator holding a specific province's license is considered legal; as a general rule, a platform's domain should end in the national jurisdiction — a foreign ".com" site without a local license is not considered legal. Since 2025, a federal bill restricting online gambling advertising nationwide has also been under discussion.

🚫Indonesia: the strictest regime in the region — a total ban with no exceptions

Indonesia — the world's largest Muslim-majority country by population — bans all forms of gambling, land-based and online, for citizens and foreigners alike, with no exceptions. The legal basis is the Criminal Code (Articles 303 and 303-bis) and Law No. 7 of 1974 on Gambling Control. Since 2024, an updated electronic information law (the ITE Law) has separately criminalized distributing and promoting online gambling digitally, including disguising ads as "health tips" or "lifestyle content" on social media.

Since January 2026, the law closed the last grey area: liability previously applied only to gambling "in a public place"; private play at home via smartphone is now treated the same as public gambling and carries the same penalties — up to 10 years in prison and fines of up to IDR 10 billion for organizers. Indonesian regulators are also aggressively targeting financial infrastructure: over 33,000 bank accounts linked to online gambling have been frozen since 2024, and in 2026 the crypto prediction-market service Polymarket was blocked under the same "disguised gambling" rationale.

Summary table by country

❗Why it's worth checking the current status yourself

• Legislation changes fast — what was banned a year ago may be legal now, and vice versa
• Legalizing an industry doesn't automatically make a specific operator legal — a local license is what matters
• Liability may apply to organizers, and in some jurisdictions to certain categories of users too