Israeli online casinos for Real Money

According to the Israeli Penal Code, land-based casino gambling is illegal. Moreover, so are slot halls and gambling arcades. There is little room to manoeuvre on the matter. Despite this, there has often been debate amongst the country’s ruling authorities when it comes to potentially legalised casino gambling. Most of these talks hinge on the benefits it would bring to tourism and the hospitality sector. While this is unquestionably something that may occur in the future, it doesn’t look like happening any time soon. We would imagine that it will come to pass – but only in time.

For now, any players who are caught betting in land-based establishments in Israel could face a year in prison, while those running the operations could face up to three years in prison. This may seem harsh, but it is less heavy-handed than some of the punishments in Israel’s neighbouring countries.

This brings us to online casino gambling. What do we know about that? Firstly, online casino gambling is also illegal in Israel. However, unlike land-based betting, the authorities do not crack down hard on players who are caught gambling online. In fact, we haven’t heard of any punishments being doled out to Israelis.

Israel does take some steps to block foreign betting sites, but we’ll admit – they don’t go overboard there. It is not difficult to find sites that accept players from Israel, and a half-decent VPN will get you past the most basic blocks from Israel’s internet service providers. While this is all possible, we must stress that we don’t condone it.

Technically, not all forms of gambling are illegal in Israel, despite how it first appears. For instance, lottery, bingo, keno, scratch cards and raffle games are deemed legal. Secondly, sports betting is considered perfectly fine, too. However, there are notable rules in place to govern them, and their bodies.

Mifal Hapayis has full jurisdiction over all lottery-style games in Israel. This is a monopoly, and it is only legal to bet on these games in Israel if you do so through this company. They offer both online and land-based services.

Sports betting is the plaything of another monopoly known as the Israel Sports Betting Board. This company also runs both online and land-based operations, and you are free to wager on a myriad of sports, assuming you do so through the monopoly.

Clearly, these sectors are not open to outsiders and operators in foreign countries. Again, there are other ways to gamble on lottos and sports betting online, but these aren’t strictly legal, even if no punishment has been recorded for players who get caught doing so.

The only gambling games that are legal in Israel are bingo, keno, scratch cards, lottos and sports betting. Therefore, these are the most popular gambling games that we can see, at least on an official level. Unofficially, poker games are popular with Israelis betting at foreign sites. There is a crowd that likes to bet on sports, too, but this is not as noticeable.

No real major software providers are based in Israel – at least, none that appear at globally popular betting sites. It is worth noting that offshore casinos catering to Israelis will feature an array of games from top-tier developers, but these are all based in other countries. Mifal Hapayis does create a handful of lotto and number-betting games, but these are only available on websites run by the monopoly of the same name.

If you are going to be playing legal, licensed, and regulated Israeli gambling options, you’re going to need to choose services offered by Mifal Hapayis or the Israel Sports Betting Board. Naturally, that doesn’t leave a lot of options. Furthermore, these options are only open to players in Israel or those visiting as tourists. They do not accept wagers or stakes from anybody who cannot prove that they reside in Israel.

It is a different story for offshore and foreign casinos and sportsbooks. These are based outside of Israel, so they are beyond Israeli jurisdiction. At the same time, you’re going to find a mixed bag when it comes to sites accepting Israelis – some do, some don’t. You can find out which ones do right here on this page. It is worth noting that these sites typically offer gameplay in English and require the use of the US dollar or another major FIAT currency.