The government of Tunisia has been urged to “open a half-century-old rulebook” and apply urgent reforms to combat illegal gambling.
Last week, a draft legislative project was endorsed by 23 MPs to the Tunis Al-Barlamān (parliament), aiming to close liabilities that have allowed illegal gambling operators to engage freely with Tunisian citizens.
The proposed reforms aim to tighten restrictions and strengthen enforcement across internet service providers, app stores and payment firms, which currently operate with no oversight under Tunisia’s gambling Decree of 1974.
The legislative initiative is being led by MP Yasser Gourari, who has warned that Tunisia’s regulatory framework has fallen dangerously behind technological change.
“Our gambling laws were written for an era of gaming halls and paper tickets,” Gourari said. “Today we are facing offshore platforms, mobile applications and digital payments that simply did not exist in 1974. The regulatory architecture has been completely outpaced by technology.”
To date, Tunisia has tolerated a sprawling black market in online gambling, where foreign operators attract local players without licences, consumer safeguards or tax obligations.
Under the existing legal framework, land-based casinos are permitted but restricted to foreign tourists, operating under a tightly controlled regime rooted in the 1974 Decree. Alongside this, the state maintains a monopoly on sports betting through Promosport, which remains Tunisia’s only authorised betting operator offering legal, land-based wagering products.
Rather than introducing a licensing regime for online gambling, lawmakers appear intent on suppression.
The draft proposal would criminalise the organisation, promotion and use of unauthorised gambling services, with particular emphasis on eradicating access to online platforms and apps.
Internet providers would be required to block gambling websites, while payment firms would be obliged to restrict transactions linked to wagering. Penalties would extend beyond operators to advertisers and facilitators, significantly widening the enforcement net.
Gourari has framed the measures as essential to protecting consumers and financial stability.
“Unregulated platforms expose Tunisians to fraud, addiction and financial harm, while diverting economic activity entirely outside state oversight,” he said. “The status quo is no longer sustainable.”
For Tunisia, the shift is striking. For years, online gambling has existed in a regulatory vacuum, neither explicitly legal nor rigorously pursued. The new bill signals a political recalibration, recasting betting not merely as a moral issue but as a social and economic risk tied to fraud, addiction and capital leakage.
The project’s supporters argue that prohibition is the only realistic response to a market dominated by foreign platforms. Critics remain unconvinced, warning that outright bans rarely eliminate demand and often push activity deeper underground.
Blocking websites and transactions may inconvenience casual gamblers, they argue, but determined users typically find technological workarounds. If the proposal advances through parliament, it would mark the most significant shift in Tunisia’s gambling laws in more than fifty years. Policing digital ecosystems is costly, technically complex, and politically sensitive, particularly in a nation where internet freedom has been a hard-won 2011 revolutionary achievement.
