United Arab Emirates

The General Commercial Gaming Regulatory Authority is the sole authority for commercial gaming in the United Arab Emirates. It is a federal body headquartered in Abu Dhabi, established under Federal Law by Decree No. 30 of 2022 on Regulating Commercial Gaming. Conducting or facilitating commercial gaming without a GCGRA licence is a criminal offence, and the prohibition reaches operators, their employees and third parties supplying products or services to the industry.

The GCGRA grants five categories of licence. An entity often needs more than one.

• Gaming Operators — entities operating internet gaming platforms, sports wagering, land-based gaming facilities, lotteries and lottery retail.
• Gaming-Related Vendors — suppliers of gaming equipment or related goods and services.
• Key Persons, Corporate — entities holding decision-making roles in the ownership structure, including controllers, affiliates and management service providers.
• Key Persons, Individual — directors, executive officers and controllers.
• Gaming Employees — individuals working for or connected with a licensee.

There is no open application route. A prospective applicant submits an intake form, the GCGRA screens it, and only on passing that screen does the applicant receive an Invitation to Apply and access to the licensing portal. An application that fails the screen ends before any formal filing is made.

Licensing also depends on where the activity sits. The GCGRA regulates federally, but each of the seven emirates decides whether to permit gaming on its own territory.

The GCGRA has not published a fee schedule. What is documented is the structure and the sequence of payments, not the amounts, which are set per licence category and communicated through the intake and portal process.

• Application fee — non-refundable, payable once the GCGRA accepts the intake form and unlocks the licensing portal. It covers administrative processing, registration of the application and the initial assessment of the company structure, key persons and business model. It is not refunded if the applicant pauses or is refused.
• In-Principle Approval fee — equal to 10 per cent of the total licence fee, payable when the GCGRA grants In-Principle Approval.
• Balance of the licence fee — the remaining 90 per cent, payable at the Intent to Issue stage before the licence is granted.
• Yearly licence maintenance fee — payable annually to keep the licence active, with the amount depending on licence type and the scale of the activity.

All fees are non-refundable. Because the bulk of the licence fee is only committed after the regulator has signalled that it intends to license, the cash exposure before that point is limited to the application fee.

Figures circulating in trade press for a land-based casino licence are unconfirmed and are not published by the GCGRA. Applicants obtain the figures for their own category directly from the regulator.

The UAE has no statutory gaming tax rate. There is no published schedule and no rate set in law. The gaming levy is a commercial term agreed in the licence, which means an operator cannot read its liability off a table and must confirm it in its own licence conditions.

The clearest public data point is Wynn Al Marjan Island, licensed on a fifteen-year renewable term with a blended gaming tax reported at 10 to 12 per cent of gross gaming revenue. That figure is specific to that licence and negotiated; another operator or product could be set differently. Earlier reporting of roughly 25 per cent on slots, 18 per cent on tables and 8 per cent on VIP play predates the blended arrangement and should not be relied on.

Ordinary federal taxes apply on top of the levy.

• Corporate tax — 9 per cent on taxable profit above AED 375,000.
• Value added tax — 5 per cent at the standard rate.

For suppliers the position is simpler: a Gaming-Related Vendor is a UAE business like any other for tax purposes, and the negotiated gaming levy sits with the operator rather than with the vendor.

Licensees are supervised against federal financial-crime law and against the GCGRA own standards.

• Anti-money laundering — Federal Decree by Law No. 10 of 2025 on Anti-Money Laundering and Combating the Financing of Terrorism and Proliferation Financing, together with Cabinet Resolution No. 134 of 2025 containing its executive regulations.
• Terrorism listings — Cabinet Decision No. 74 of 2020 on the terrorism lists regulation and the implementation of United Nations Security Council resolutions, and Federal Decree Law No. 7 of 2014 on combatting terrorism offences.
• Responsible gaming — operators must offer deposit limits, cooling-off periods, self-monitoring tools and self-exclusion.
• Technical and advertising standards — licensees must comply with the technical standards governing gaming activities, processes, technology and game design, and with the GCGRA advertising standards.

The GCGRA also maintains a public licensee register and a complaints route for reporting unlicensed activity, so operating outside the regime is visible as well as unlawful.

Incorporation is sequenced into the licensing process rather than preceding it. In-Principle Approval is the point at which an applicant may incorporate or finalise the UAE entity, open bank accounts, obtain visas and local permits and establish a physical and operational presence. Until the licence is issued, none of that permits gaming activity.

Suitability is assessed at group level. The GCGRA does not confine its review to the UAE entity: controllers, affiliates and management service providers in the ownership chain may each need a Key Person (Corporate) licence, and directors, executive officers and controllers may each need a Key Person (Individual) licence.

One further change matters for contracting. The new Civil Transactions Law, issued as Federal Decree-Law No. 25 of 2025 and in force from 1 June 2026, replaced the 1985 civil code and did not carry forward Articles 1012 to 1021, the provisions that had governed gambling and betting including invalidity, restitution and the recoverability of losses. Gambling is now addressed narrowly within the framework on competitions. The practical effect is that the general civil code is no longer the instrument through which gaming contracts are tested.

• 2022 — Federal Law by Decree No. 30 of 2022 on Regulating Commercial Gaming establishes the framework.
• September 2023 — The GCGRA is announced as the federal regulator for commercial gaming and the national lottery.
• 2025 — The first lottery licence is granted to The Game LLC and the first land-based gaming facility licence to Island 3 AMI FZ-LLC, trading as Wynn Al Marjan.
• Late 2025 — The first internet gaming and sports wagering licences are granted to Coin Technology Projects LLC.
• 1 June 2026 — Federal Decree-Law No. 25 of 2025, the new Civil Transactions Law, takes effect and omits Articles 1012 to 1021, the former gambling and betting provisions.
• September 2026 — Twenty-two Gaming-Related Vendor licences are on the GCGRA register.