Simon’s Global Casino Guide (Online & Land-based)

On this page I have collected all the casino pages, I have written over the years.

At this point, all 196 UN recognized countries in the world have a page listing all the land-based casinos in that country, and the online casinos licensed and registered there.

Click on your country on this interactive casino map below and you can see information, and a list of all brick & mortar casinos, and internet casino platforms, which are licensed in the country, and accept players from that country.

 

Interactive Casino Map

 

Interactive Online Casino Map Placeholder
Interactive Online Casino Map

 

Explanation of the colours: 

BLUE – Online casino are legal  in that country and you can freely play online.

/Comment: Whether these are state owned, private online casinos, or a mixture, it doesn’t matter. If any sort of digital casino platform is available to the players, then it is marked blue on the map.  

Additionally, in a few countries online casino are not yet officially regulated, but it is de facto* legal, these are also marked blue.

It’s also possible (quite common actually) that the government’s of these countries officially say that online casinos are not actually legal, but this only extends to local companies. And playing in foreign online casinos, outside of the jurisdiction* of the country is either not regulated ,legal or de facto legal, and it is not prosecuted, fined, restricted at all. These are also marked blue./

 

YELLOW – Online casino are either severely restricted and/or officially illegal, and it is not know whether this is enforced online or not. In this case, the country is coloured yellow. Play at your own risk.

 

RED – The colour red means that all forms of online casino gambling are illegal, and players do get punished, fined, prosecuted for playing online. Do not play in any of these countries at all. Luckily, there are only a few.

 

 

*De facto definition: De facto means in reality, as is. In many countries online gambling is not regulated (you can check the other interactive map for the details) or it is illegal, but players can play freely online, and the state doesn’t restrict this. In that case online gambling is de facto legal. These are marked blue.

*Jurisdiction definition: Jurisdiction means that the laws, legislation of a country only extends up to the border of that country (and its territories, unless special agreements were signed, e.:g NAFTA, EU), and they only apply to the citizens of said country (unless otherwise specified).

Therefore, online casinos always have to abide by the laws of the country they are registered, licensed in, and by the extremely complex and complicated international laws (which are rarely enforced tbh.).

 

UPDATE 2021: For technical reasons, I could only insert one interactive map on the site. Therefore, the land-based casinos do not have a similar map (but they do have info about their legal status, situation in the list below, or if you click on any of the countries on the map).

I apologize for this inconvenience, the page loads very slow as it is.

 

List of land-based and online casinos in the world, in all 196 countries

First of all, there are two vastly different types of land-based casinos:

 

European style casinos – Europe invented casinos. It wasn’t invented in Las Vegas, despite the popular misconception.

The word casino means “a building or room used for social amusements”  – according to Merriam Webster*.

And the world’s first casino (a gambling house that was specifically named casino) is the casino of Theatre Saint Moses* from 1638.

/Clarification: The building was called Ca’ Vendramin Calergi** (built in 1481), and back then, the complex was known as Theatre Saint Moses***, and only the gambling section of this place was called a casino, where rich guests of the theatre went to socialize, drink and gamble after the plays, hence the definition “a building or room used for social amusements”.

Nowadays, since 1959, it is home to Casinò di Venezia. But at that time it wasn’t. They call themselves the oldest casino, but it’s not true, it’s just a marketing gimmick, it’s a lie./

These European casinos (the best example is probably the Casino Wiesbaden, a quintessential European casino, still in operation since 1771) were private, invitation only places for the rich, nobility and the famous & powerful, the so called ‘movers and shakers’ of the day.

It was their private club, where they discussed the fates of nations, and entire industries behind closed doors in carpeted rooms, sipping expensive drinks.

/Comment: It was more like Davos or the Bildenberg Hotel, where the 1% regularly meets nowadays, rather than the casinos of today./

And casino games where just a side attraction, not the main focus.

This is why, even to this day, almost all of the bigger European casinos are these posh places with dress codes (often semi-formal, not just smart causal), entrance fees (to make sure the poor doesn’t attend, but you can’t say this out nowadays, because it is not politically correct…).

And that is also why, that even to this day, European style casinos have significantly fewer and worse games than huge American style casino-plexes (see below).

And there are actual private clubs too, invitation only, e,g: Johnny Depp’s private club in Paris, the Paris Elysées Club (video below). Which is only open to the wealthy members (although, acquiring membership is easy).

It is the perfect example of a modern re-interpretation of what it means to be a European casino (it took an American to create the perfect European casino… :D ).

 

If you are interested, you can take a look at Johnny Depp’s Casino Club in Paris, by watching the video below (it’s for rich people only, and it is priced accordingly, and looks the part):

 

Sources:

*Definition of the word casino – Merriam-Webster

**Ca’ Vendramin Calergi – Wikipedia

***e-architect – Casino di Venezia – the oldest Casino is a masterpiece of Renaissance architecture

 

 

American style casinos – Europe might have invented casinos, but the US consumerism (and the world of organized crime…) created the casinos as we know them today. And Las Vegas did invent this one.

“Everything’s bigger in America” is the perfect way to describe the American casinos. Huge, sprawling, megaplex, outside of cites, only accessible by car, no dress code, no entrance fee, just come and bring your credit card, free parking. The more the merrier.

For a long time, the biggest casinos were in the USA. Huge, towering monstrosities, with fake European landmarks (e,g: ) or entire mock towns with multiple casinos (e.g: ).

Maybe throw in some monster derby*, and rodeo riding contest** as well, two golden arches, US flags everywhere, all wiretapped to please the NSA***, and you got your perfect Yankee casino.

 

UPDATE 2021: But nowadays, most of the biggest casinos are in China, which copied the US style of casinos 100%, but made them bigger and better (to directly compete with US casino destinations for international travellers, for political reasons, and for rich people, the private jet, private yacht type), and added even more surveillance and corruption…****, if that’s even possible…

The biggest casino in the world is still in the USA, it’s WinStar World Casino. But among the TOP 100 biggest casinos in the world, there are more and more Asian casinos, and all the big development takes place in Asia nowadays. Macau is the New Las Vegas.

 

Sources:

*Night of Destruction – Kewadin Tribal Casinos

**PBR: Unleash the Beast – MGM Grand Casino Las Vegas

***Spying on the Home Front – PBS

****Chinese casino bribery scandal – South China Morning Post

 

 

+EXTRA – Asian/pachinko casinos:

Not entirely a third kind, restricted to Japan and nearby countries only, but it’s definitely unique and different from the two above. And it is definitely a sight to see.

They say a picture is worth a thousand words, but when it comes to pachinko parlours, a video is worth a million.

Therefore, it’s best to show how a pachinko casino looks like, WARNING, LOUD:

 

A cacophony of sound and light. The tile of the video is not entirely a clickbait.

Pachinko parlours are loud, people smoke inside (UPDATE, not anymore, since 2020 pachinko parlours are non-smoking*), flashing lights are everywhere, it’s gaudy, and these venues have well known ties to Japanese organized crime, the Yakuza.

Personally, not a fan of these pachinko parlours myself, I certainly wouldn’t support the Japanese organized crime networks with my money. And every time you play in one, you do just that.

But the machines themselves do look fun, would love to try them out in a regular casino. Looks more fun than your average boring ol’ slot.

 

Sadly, the unchallenged dominance of pachinko parlours is over, now that casinos are being legalized in Japan**.

And Chinese investors are lining up already. They represent the American style, with slots and the usual casino megaplexes.

Hopefully they adapt to the local style instead of pushing the American style. But I doubt it, Chinese are known to disrespect and ignore local customs, traditions on purpose, and they “culturally colonize” areas where they are active.

Sources:

*iag – Smoking rooms the new norm as IRs, pachinko to be impacted by Japan indoor smoking ban

**iag – Japan formally establishes Casino Administration Committee

 

 

 

List of European Casinos (land-based and online)

Click on the flag or the name of the country for more information and a list of online gambling websites, which accept players from that country.

Country Online casinos Land-based casinos
This is the flag of Albania. This row in the table talks about the legal status of gambling in Albania.Albania legal, operators require a licence legal, operators require a licence
This is the flag of Andorra. This row in the table talks about the legal status of gambling in Andorra.Andorra legal, operators require a licence legal, operators require a licence
This is the flag of Austria. This row in the table talks about the legal status of gambling in Austria.Austria legal legal
This is the flag of Belarus. This row in the table talks about the legal status of gambling in Belarus.Belarus legal, operators require a licence legal, operators require a licence
This is the flag of Belgium. This row in the table talks about the legal status of gambling in Belgium.Belgium legal, operators require a licence legal, operators require a licence
This is the flag of Bosnia and Herzegovina. This row in the table talks about the legal status of gambling in Bosnia and Herzegovina.Bosnia and Herzegovina legal, operators require a licence legal, operators require a licence
This is the flag of Bulgaria. This row in the table talks about the legal status of gambling in Bulgaria.
Bulgaria		 legal, operators require a licence legal, operators require a licence
This is the flag of Channel Islands. This row in the table talks about the legal status of gambling in Channel Islands.
Channel Islands		 legal, operators require a licence legal, operators require a licence
This is the flag of Croatia. This row in the table talks about the legal status of gambling in Croatia.
Croatia		 legal, operators require a licence legal, operators require a licence
This is the flag of Cyprus. This row in the table talks about the legal status of gambling in Cyprus.
Cyprus		 legal legal, operators require a licence
This is the flag of Czech Republic. This row in the table talks about the legal status of gambling in Czech Republic.
Czech Republic		 legal, operators require a licence legal, operators require a licence
This is the flag of Denmark. This row in the table talks about the legal status of gambling in Denmark.
Denmark		 legal, operators require a licence legal, operators require a licence
This is the flag of Denmark. This row in the table talks about the legal status of gambling in Denmark.
Estonia		 legal, operators require a licence legal, operators require a licence
This is the flag of Faroe Islands. This row in the table talks about the legal status of gambling in Faroe Islands.
Faroe Islands		 legal illegal
This is the flag of France. This row in the table talks about the legal status of gambling in France.
France		 illegal domestically, but players are not prosecuted for visiting foreign online casino sites legal, operators require a licence

This is the flag of Georgia. This row in the table talks about the legal status of gambling in Georgia.
Georgia
 legal, operators require a licence legal, operators require a licence
This is the flag of Germany. This row in the table talks about the legal status of gambling in Germany.
Germany		 legal, operators require a licence legal, operators require a licence
This is the flag of Gibraltar. This row in the table talks about the legal status of gambling in Gibraltar.
Gibraltar		 legal, operators require a licence legal, operators require a licence
This is the flag of Greece. This row in the table talks about the legal status of gambling in Greece.
Greece		 legal, operators require a licence legal, operators require a licence
This is the flag of Hungary. This row in the table talks about the legal status of gambling in Hungary.
Hungary		 legal, operators require a licence legal, operators require a licence
This is the flag of Iceland. This row in the table talks about the legal status of gambling in Iceland.
Iceland		 illegal domestically, but players are not prosecuted for visiting foreign online casino sites illegal

 

Last updated: 2021-10-22

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