Bhutan

Online prohibited
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The Penal Code of Bhutan 2004 makes games of chance an offence and exempts only government-authorised lotteries. The state-owned Bhutan Lottery Limited, set up by the Ministry of Finance in 2016, is the only legal operator. There are no casinos and no licensed online iGaming.

Online casino
ProhibitedOnline play is prohibited; lotteries, state betting or land-based casinos exist.
Regulator
Not yet establishedStart of regime not yet established
Legal basis
Penal Code of Bhutan 2004Desk research, Oct 2026
Research coverage
64% 7 of 11 applicable fields. How it is scored

Legal status by product

Baseline research contract v1.1
ProductFindingStateSource
Online casino Prohibited Reported Research, Oct 2026 (2 sources)
Sports betting Prohibited Reported Research, Oct 2026 (2 sources)
Online poker Prohibited Reported Research, Oct 2026 (2 sources)
Lottery State monopoly Reported Research, Oct 2026 (2 sources)
Land-based casino Prohibited Reported Research, Oct 2026 (2 sources)
Regulation
Governing law
Penal Code of Bhutan 2004Desk research, Oct 2026
Regulators covering Bhutan

No regulator in the knowledge base covers Bhutan yet.

Brands in the knowledge base holding each regulator's licence, as of 2026-10-15.

Enforcement and controls

How the prohibition is applied
ControlFindingStateSource
Player liability Not yet established. Research queued. Unknown None
Site blocking Not yet established. Research queued. Unknown None
Payment blocking Not yet established. Research queued. Unknown None
Advertising A Department of Law and Order notice bars private individuals, religious bodies, NGOs and other organisations from running lotteries. Reported Desk research, Oct 2026

Offshore exposure

Knowledge base, as of 2026-10-15

Online play is prohibited, so these figures describe offshore activity: brands that say they accept players from Bhutan, and offers marked as available there.

Brand access declarations for Bhutan, of 1,721 brands tracked
  • Accept players from Bhutan54431.6%
  • Exclude Bhutan in their terms40023.2%
  • No declaration77745.1%
List Bhutan as a focus market3brands
Offers marked available0welcome offers
Population884,546Bhutanese Ngultrum
Brands that accept players from Bhutan Licence status, access terms and offer history per brand

The brand list, licences and how access terms changed over time are in the enterprise dataset.

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What would change this page

In progressGelephu Mindfulness City has its own legal system, but no rules on games of chance have been published for it.

  • A bill to license online casino or betting
  • New blocking, payment or advertising enforcement against offshore sites
  • Changes to the state lottery or betting monopoly
  • A change in brand access declarations of more than 5% in a month
Latest on Bhutan

No news about Bhutan yet.

All news

Other online prohibited markets

All restricted markets
MarketRegionAccept playersExcludeFocus marketOffers
Bhutan Asia 544 31.6% 400 3 0
Bangladesh Asia 538 31.3% 420 53 53
Cambodia Asia 476 27.7% 487 9 1
China mainland Asia 478 27.8% 592 11 6
India Asia 585 34.0% 386 84 76
Iraq Asia 278 16.2% 771 5 4
Japan Asia 575 33.4% 390 64 15
Not legal advice

This describes the law and its evidence. It does not tell anyone what they may do.

No commercial content

No operators are listed or promoted for Bhutan. Exposure data is published for research and compliance.

Gaps stay visible

Unknown and conflicting items stay on the page until a primary source resolves them.

Sources

  1. Bhutan: private lottery businesses illegal (Public Gaming)publicgaming.com
  2. Govt decides to set up State Owned Enterprise for Lottery business (The Bhutanese)thebhutanese.bt
Identifier
CR-JUR-BT
Research depth
Baseline
Desk research
Oct 2026
Knowledge base snapshot
2026-10-15
Sources
2 cited, medium confidence

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