Gambling Ages Around The World

It’s a strange thing when you think about it, but the legal age to gamble is different depending on where in the world you are.

You need to be 18 to bet on a horse racing, football, casino games or and most other forms of gambling, including the lottery, which was raised from 16 to 18 in 2021. Meanwhile in the majority of states in the US the minimum age for gambling is 21.

It’s not even set in stone in specific countries, with Canada being an example of one where it’s 18 in some provinces and territories but 19 in others. The reasoning behind why a country picks a given age isn’t easy to understand, with many of them being arbitrarily chosen.

Here we’ll look at some key examples from around the world and explore what it all means.

Why The Gambling Age Is Important

We could discuss the morals of legal gambling ages on this page, but truth be told that is something rather complex. Instead we’re going to look at the more literal side of things about why it matters. By that we mean that if you don’t know what the legal age to gamble is in a given country then you might be surprised or even shocked to be told you’re not old enough somewhere.

It’s not uncommon for British people to head to Las Vegas in the United States of America, as an example, and attempt to enter the casino floor when they’re 19 or 20. In America there is an extremely strict approach to the legal age for gambling, with casinos knowing that they could face high fines or even lose their licence to operate if someone underage is allowed to gamble there.

That’s why everyone gets asked for identification in Las Vegas, even old aged pensioners. It might seem odd, but casinos have to protect themselves and with people coming from all over the world to place some bets in the world’s most famous gambling city, security guards can’t simply depend on those people knowing that they’re not of a legal age to take part in the fun of Sin City.

Of course, the same is also true. If you’re from New Zealand, where the legal age to gamble in a casino is 20, and you find yourself in London then it’s handy to know that you can pop into a casino and sit down for a game of blackjack or a spin of the roulette wheel and it’s entirely legal for you to do so. Keeping on the right side of the law is always handy as a visitor to a foreign country.

The Standard Age

In the overwhelming majority of countries around the world the legal age for gambling is 18. From the Cayman Islands to Greenland, Jamaica to Aruba, 18 is the age that most countries have settled on as being an ok one for people to bet from. The one question that is difficult to answer is why, exactly, 18 was chosen as the age at which gambling is seen as ok in most places.

One school of thought is that, in most countries, people are 18 when they leave school and are therefore considered to be adults. Given that Alexander The Great conquered Maedi at the age of 16 and Charles Algernon Parsons invented something that would develop into the automobile at the age of 15, there are reasons to disagree. Even so, 18 is widely accepted as being adulthood.

Now that we have a vague understanding of why knowing the gambling age is useful and the manner in which 18 has been accepted as the legal age for betting in most countries, let’s have a look at some specific examples.

Countries Where It’s Complicated

As mentioned elsewhere in this piece, the legal age to gamble in most countries across the planet is 18. In some countries there are different ages depending on what it is that you would like to place bets on, so here we’ll have a look at those countries in particular.

There are many countries around the world where gambling is illegal in its entirety, with examples being Cuba, the British Virgin Islands, Sudan and Mauritania. In Malawi, meanwhile, the legal age for gambling is 5 (five) and is no lower because younger children ‘do not understand the meaning of money.)

The Federated States of Micronesia follows a similar pattern to that of the United States, insomuch as the various states are allowed to dictate their own legal age for gambling. In Yap and Chuuk it is entirely illegal.

Countries Where The Minimum Age Is Not 18

Here is a list of the countries where the minimum age for gambling is not 18. If gambling is illegal there then the country will also be on this list.

That means that if a country is not on this list nor in the list where the age is complicated then there either is no gambling there or the legal age for gambling of the country in question is 18.

• Belgium – 21
• Greece – 21
• Jersey – 21
• Afghanistan – Illegal
• Armenia – 21
• Bahrain – Illegal
• Brunei Darussalam – Illegal
• Mainland China – Illegal
• India – 21
• Indonesia – Illegal
• Japan – 20
• Lebanon – 21
• Macau – 21
• Malaysia – 21
• Maldives – Illegal
• Pakistan – Illegal
• Qatar – Illegal Saudi Arabia – Illegal
• Singapore – 21
• South Korea – 19
• Syria – Illegal
• Taiwan – 21
• Thailand – Illegal
• Vietnam – 21
• Egypt – 21
• Eritrea – Illegal
• Ethiopia – Illegal
• Libya – Illegal
• Malawi – 5
• Mauritania – Illegal
• Namibia – 21
• Nigeria – 20
• Somalia – Illegal
• Sudan – Illegal
• Bahamas – 21
• British Virgin Islands – Illegal
• Cuba – Illegal
• Saint Kitts and Nevis – 21
• United Arab Emirates – 21

Of course, if you plan to go somewhere you’ve not been before and you want to gamble while you are there then it is really worth checking the local rules.

There are instances in the past of people facing legal charges for gambling when they are not allowed to when in another country.