Blocked Gambling Sites and VPN Use: The Law in Asia

Is using a VPN for gambling illegal?

The VPN is not usually the thing that gets you into trouble. The bet is.

Japan is the clearest example. Connecting from inside Japan to gamble on an online casino is a crime even if the operator is legally licensed overseas¹. The National Police Agency says the same thing in its own guidance: an online casino that is legally operated abroad is still off limits if you are connecting from Japan². The Consumer Affairs Agency repeats it, and adds the detail that matters most for casual players: free versions and free bonuses, including points, are covered too¹. You do not need to have deposited money for the conduct to count.

That is the pattern across the region. The offense is defined by where the player is, not by where the website is hosted or licensed. A VPN changes the address your traffic appears to come from. It does not change your physical location, and it does not change the law that applies to you there.

There is a second layer, and it is the one that costs people money in practice. Operators police VPN use themselves. bet365 lists "using or attempting to use a VPN or similar technology to disguise your location" as a prohibited activity, in the same list as arbitrage betting and bots⁴. So even in a jurisdiction where your bet would not be prosecuted, the operator can void it.

If you are weighing up whether the site you are looking at is one you can legally use from where you are, the country-by-country picture is set out in Is Online Gambling Legal in Asia? The 12 Jurisdictions Compared.

What the law bans: players, operators and gray areas

Most Asian jurisdictions split the offense into two: the person who bets, and the person who takes the bet. A VPN is relevant to both, but in different ways.

For players, the question is whether gambling from your location through a remote service is an offense. In Singapore it is. An individual who gambles in Singapore using a remote gambling service that is not provided by an exempt operator commits an offense². The Remote Gambling Act prohibits remote gambling activities and criminalizes the whole spectrum, from the individual gambler up to the people who facilitate or provide the service⁵.

For operators, the question is whether they are offering into a market they are not licensed for. Many unauthorized offshore operations use the internet to promote their services, publish odds and process bets⁶. That is what the blocking orders are aimed at.

Then there is the gray area that catches people who think they have found a workaround: proxy gambling. In Singapore, proxy gambling outside of a casino is a specific offense⁷. If you are placing bets on someone else's behalf, or having someone place them for you, that is a separate problem from the VPN itself.

India takes a different route. Online gambling is illegal there under the Information Technology Act, 2000, which makes all forms of online gambling illegal even though the Act was originally written to regulate cybercrime³. The 2025 online gaming law then went after the money: it prohibits every online money game, whether based on skill, chance or both, and bars banks and payment systems from processing those transactions⁸. A VPN does not help with a payment block. Your card or wallet still has to move money, and that is the point where the transaction gets refused.

Blocked sites: Vietnam's ISP-level blocking

Blocking is the main enforcement tool.

The Vietnamese government has blocked many gambling sites at the ISP level since 2018⁹.

Polymarket: why the market label does not work

Polymarket is worth its own section because it is the case people most often assume is different. It looks like a market rather than a casino, and that argument has not worked.

The practical takeaway: if a regulator classifies a product as gambling, the label the platform uses for itself does not matter. Prediction markets, esports betting and skin betting have all run into the same wall. In Singapore, esports betting is illegal outright¹⁰.

VPN use under operator rules: prohibited and penalized

This is the part that catches people who have checked the law and decided the risk is acceptable. The operator's terms are a separate set of rules, and they are enforced automatically.

bet365's prohibited activities policy covers arbitrage betting to guarantee a profit, using a VPN or similar technology to disguise your location, and using artificial intelligence, automated players or player assistance software⁴. Those three sit in the same list, which tells you how the company treats them: as integrity breaches, not as technicalities.

What this means in practice:

• Withdrawal checks are where location flags usually surface, because that is when identity and payment details get reviewed
• Even a legal win can be lost to a terms breach, and that dispute is with the operator, not with a regulator

Enforcement: arrests, site blocks and content takedowns

Enforcement in the region runs on three tracks: arrests of players and organizers, blocking of sites, and removal of promotional content.

On players, China is the sharpest. Participants in cross-border gambling face administrative penalties of detention and fines under the Public Security Administration Punishments Law, and criminal liability if a crime is constituted, besides possible large property losses¹².

On content, Thailand's 457,562 removed items since January 2025 show how much of this is about promotion rather than play¹¹. Affiliate pages, social media posts and app listings get taken down, which is why a site can be reachable one week and gone the next.

For a wider view of how these campaigns have unfolded across the region, see Crackdowns on Offshore Online Gambling Hubs in Asia.

Singapore's Remote Gambling Act: exemptions and age limit

Singapore is the jurisdiction where the rules are most clearly written down, so it is worth walking through properly.

In Singapore, the statutory age for entering casinos is 21 but that for participating in betting on horse racing or sports and buying lottery tickets remains at 18¹³.

The Remote Gambling Act prohibits remote gambling and gives enforcement agencies powers to tackle it⁵. An individual who gambles in Singapore using a remote gambling service that is not provided by an exempt operator commits an offense, and it is an arrestable offense². The penalty is a fine of up to S$5,000, up to six months in prison, or both².

Singapore Pools and the Singapore Turf Club were found suitable to be exempt operators under the Act¹⁴. Those are the two names that matter if you want to bet legally from your phone in Singapore.

Age limits are split:

Under the Gambling Control Act, the minimum age for gambling remains 21, except at Singapore Pools physical outlets, where it is 18¹⁶.

The Act also created offenses aimed at people trying to get around the age rules. An underaged individual who uses false evidence of age to gamble, enter an approved gambling venue during a restricted period, or open or reopen a remote gambling account with a licensee commits an offense, with a fine of up to S$10,000¹⁷. An excluded person who uses false evidence to enter a gaming machine room or engage in remote gambling faces a fine of up to S$10,000, up to three years in prison, or both¹⁷.

Excluded individuals are not permitted to gamble or enter gambling areas across all platforms and locations where national exclusion orders apply, which covers fruit machine rooms and Singapore Pools online gambling¹⁸. That does not apply to people under self exclusion¹⁸.

For visitors and foreign residents, the same age limits and the same remote gambling offense apply. Being on a tourist visa does not create an exemption. If you want the wider picture on how rules differ for visitors, see Gambling Law for Visitors and Expats in Asia.