Recent and Pending Gambling Law Changes in Asia

India's nationwide ban on online money games

India's Promotion and Regulation of Online Gaming Act, 2025 imposes a complete ban on all forms of online money games. That covers games of chance, games of skill, and any mix of the two. It also bans advertising, promotion and facilitation of those games¹.

The practical effect for a player is simple. If you are in India and you open a real-money poker, rummy or casino app, you are playing something the law bans outright. The same applies to the sites that offer it and to anyone who advertises or promotes it. There is no carve-out for skill games, which is the change that matters most for people who used to argue that poker or rummy sat outside gambling law.

If you are a visitor to India, the ban applies to you the same way it applies to residents. It is about the activity, not your nationality or your visa. If you are an Indian citizen traveling abroad, the ban is written around online money games in India, so the question of what you do on a foreign site while physically outside the country is a different one from what you can do at home.

For the wider picture of how India's rules compare with its neighbors, see gambling laws in Asia and the country page for India.

China: when players are not punished

China's Ministry of Public Security has issued a notice on applying the law in gambling violation cases, and it sets out when players face no punishment at all⁶.

Under Article 9 of that notice, relatives playing mahjong or poker with money stakes are not punished as long as there is no profit motive. For people who are not relatives, playing mahjong or poker with small money stakes is generally not treated as gambling and is not punished either⁷.

That distinction is worth holding onto, because it separates two very different things. A private game at home among family, with no cut taken and no business behind it, sits outside the penalty rules. A game run for private gain, as a business, sits inside them. The line is about where the game happens and whether anyone is running it for gain, not about how much skill the game involves.

If you want the fuller treatment of how skill and chance are treated across the region, see games of skill vs games of chance and what counts as gambling.

Cambodia suspends online gambling at all casinos

Cambodia will suspend online gambling operations conducted from casinos across the country from October 2026. The suspension applies to online gambling activities operated or broadcast from casino premises, and ordinary casinos will not be closed. It is described as temporary².

So the answer to the obvious question is no: casinos in Cambodia do not have to close. What stops is the online side of the business run out of those buildings. If you were planning to play an online table hosted from a Cambodian casino, that is the part affected.

This is not Cambodia's first move in this area. In 2019 the country's Prime Minister formally banned all online gambling and restricted internet gaming services, with no licenses to be issued⁸. The 2026 suspension is a further step on the same path rather than a new direction.

Cambodia's casino industry itself has a longer history. It began developing in the late 1990s, with casinos built in border towns and resorts such as Sihanoukville to draw foreign tourists, while Cambodian citizens are banned from gambling⁹. That split, open to visitors and closed to locals, is the shape of the market you will find on the ground.

For what that means if you are planning a trip, see can I gamble in Cambodia and which Asian casinos bar local citizens.

Singapore: penalties for players and rules for excluded and underaged persons

Singapore's Gambling Control Act 2022 created offenses that fall on the player, not just the operator. An underaged individual who gambles in or from Singapore can be fined up to S$1,500³. The same S$1,500 maximum applies to an underaged person who enters an approved gambling venue during a restricted period¹⁰.

Using false evidence of age is treated far more seriously. An underaged individual who uses false evidence of age to gamble, enter a venue or open a remote gambling account can be fined up to S$10,000¹⁰. That is the number to remember if you are young and thinking about borrowing someone's ID.

Excluded persons face their own rules. An excluded person must not engage in any gambling in or from Singapore in contravention of a gambling ban that applies to them³. Breaching that can mean imprisonment for a term not exceeding 12 months, a fine, or both¹⁰. Licensees must bar excluded persons from gambling, and they may refuse to pay winnings to an underaged individual or an excluded person¹⁰.

Self-exclusion is the practical route most people use. Applying for it blocks you from the following:

• casinos
• Singapore Pools online betting
• jackpot machine rooms at private clubs¹¹

The National Council on Problem Gambling runs the process, and there is a step-by-step guide if you want to do it yourself¹¹.

One more point that catches people out: the Act reaches betting operations conducted outside Singapore where the person placing or accepting the bet is physically in Singapore, and operations conducted in or from Singapore for people who are physically outside it¹². Being offshore does not put you outside the rules. For more on that, see is it illegal to use offshore gambling sites in Asia and can you be prosecuted at home for gambling abroad.

Minimum gambling ages in Singapore: 18 or 21 depending on the game

Singapore does not have a single gambling age. It depends on what you are doing and where.

The general minimum for gambling in Singapore is 21, with Singapore Pools' physical outlets as the exception at 18¹⁵. The Minister responsible for family and child welfare and protection can raise any of these ages by order in the Gazette, so the numbers can move without a new Act¹⁶.

For visitors, the casino age of 21 is the one that matters most, and it is enforced at the door. Citizens and permanent residents have an extra step at the casino entrance, the entry levy, which is covered in casino entry levies and fees in Asia. If you are turned away for age, the rules on what you need to bring are in ID and documents needed to enter a casino in Asia.

Thailand's Gambling Act: the law that still governs betting today

Thailand's Gambling Act is old and narrow, and it still decides most of what you can and cannot do. The Act does not cover online gambling directly, but it states clearly that nearly all wagering activities are banned¹⁷. The practical result is that the country's land-based and online gambling landscape sits in a gray zone¹⁷.

Under the Gambling Act of 1935, all forms of gambling are illegal except horse racing and the lottery¹⁸. That is the short version, and it is still accurate for most bets placed in Thailand today. As of early 2026 the country remained under strict prohibition of all forms of gambling¹⁸.

Foreigners are not exempt. The laws apply to foreigners as well, and authorities have been known to jail them to await deportation, with fines and deportation often the response¹⁸. If you are a visitor or an expat, the same rules that apply to Thai citizens apply to you. For the wider regional picture, see gambling law for visitors and expats in Asia and can foreigners be deported or banned for gambling in Asia.

Thailand's advertising ban and the amending law deadline

Thailand has been moving, slowly, toward a regulated framework. From August 1, 2025, changes to the law allowed some types of real-money gambling games to operate under a new regulatory framework⁵. That is a real shift, but it is a narrow one: it covers some games, not all betting, and the old Act still governs everything outside the new framework.

The new framework comes with conditions. Operators and players face financial requirements, identity verification through KYC, and anti-money-laundering measures⁵. In practice that means ID and identity checks apply before play under the new rules, and the operator has to meet financial and reporting standards to stay licensed.

Advertising is the other half of the change. Thailand's rules on promoting gambling are restrictive, and the amending law tightens the conditions under which gambling can be advertised at all. If you run a business that touches gambling promotion in Thailand, the compliance burden is now part of the operating cost, not an afterthought.

The start date matters for anyone tracking this. The amending law came into force on August 1, 2025, so there is no further date to wait for: the position on the ground is the one described above, with some real-money games allowed under the new framework and everything else still caught by the old Act.

For the country-level detail, see can I gamble in Thailand, is sports betting legal in Asia and which lotteries are legal in Asia.

What this means if you are planning to play

The changes above point in different directions, so it helps to sort them by what you actually want to do.

If you want to play online for real money, India is now closed to it, Cambodia has suspended the casino-hosted version, Singapore's rules follow you even when the operator is offshore, and Thailand allows only some games under its new framework. If you want to play in person, the picture is steadier: Singapore's casinos are open to anyone 21 and over, Cambodia's casinos remain open to foreign visitors, and Thailand's land-based options are still limited to horse racing and the lottery.

Age is the other thing to check before you go anywhere. Singapore splits it between 18 and 21 depending on the game and the venue, and the casino door checks it. Elsewhere in the region the age rules vary by jurisdiction and by game, which is set out in legal gambling age in Asia by jurisdiction and game.

If you are an expat or a long-term resident rather than a visitor, the rules that apply to citizens usually apply to you too. Singapore's excluded person rules, for example, do not care about your nationality. Thailand's gambling laws apply to foreigners as well as Thais. The one place where status clearly changes the answer is Cambodia, where citizens are banned from gambling and foreign visitors are not.