Ahmed Badawi says Egypt’s Digital Safety Law will cover betting
Regulation3 min read
Ahmed Badawi, chair of the House of Representatives’ Communications and Information Technology Committee, said on 1 November that a planned Digital Safety Law would include online betting controls and was expected to reach Parliament in about six weeks. The proposed provisions would target betting brokers, representatives inside Egypt and people who promote or facilitate access to platforms; an earlier plan to amend the Cybercrime Law missed its timetable.
Egypt’s forthcoming Digital Safety Law will address online betting, with the government expected to submit it to Parliament in about six weeks. The timetable came from Ahmed Badawi, who chairs the House of Representatives’ Communications and Information Technology Committee.
The proposed law would reach betting brokers and their representatives in Egypt rather than solely blocking websites and apps, Badawi said. It would also apply to people who advertise the platforms or assist citizens in reaching them. The law would incorporate planned Cybercrime Law amendments, legislation on children’s social media use and new protections for adults against technology risks.
Betting apps have defrauded hundreds of thousands of Egyptians, Badawi said. The apps target people aged 20 to 60, and some users stay on them for 24 hours without a break.
Badawi said authorities had blocked 70 betting apps by May. He said people behind blocked apps continued to launch new platforms to bypass restrictions. In February, he said the parliamentary committee, the National Telecom Regulatory Authority and the Supreme Council for Media Regulation would work together to identify and block illegally operating betting apps.
Badawi pointed to the Cybercrime Law as a model, saying its penalties had sharply reduced electronic blackmail. The law's tougher penalties extend to life imprisonment.
The bill originated in efforts to protect children online. In September, the National Telecom Regulatory Authority barred social media platforms from allowing children under 13 to use them and imposed safe-use controls for 13- to 15-year-olds. Authority spokesman Mohamed Ibrahim said the wider draft law would cover betting platforms and violent games.
Egypt has no licensed online gambling market. The Civil Code voids gambling contracts, while the Penal Code targets gambling premises. Under the 2022 hotel and tourism law, only foreign passport holders may play in licensed hotel casinos. MPs have said for years that the laws do not deal directly with online betting. In January 2025, committee deputy chair Martha Mahrous tabled a bill to criminalise online betting.
Legal action was taken against four suspects by the Interior Ministry’s public funds and organised crime unit, the ministry said on 3 November. They were accused of laundering about EGP50m derived from betting and cryptocurrency speculation. The ministry did not specify whether the betting occurred online. It said the suspects had sought to disguise the money’s origins and make it look legitimate. The suspects allegedly established companies and purchased real estate, cars and motorcycles.
The Public Funds Prosecution ordered a new suspect’s arrest and directed that the defendants’ phones be seized and examined, Vetogate reported the following day. Prosecutors wanted to track the defendants’ contacts and transactions and determine whether anyone else helped amass the money or obscure its source.
The government has not published its draft Digital Safety Law, making the reach of its betting provisions uncertain.