Foreigners Gambling in Asia by Country

Where foreigners can legally gamble: country-by-country

If you hold a foreign passport, Asia splits into three broad groups. In one group, the casino door is open to you and closed or half-closed to locals. In a second group, there is simply nothing licensed to walk into. And in a third, the law reaches past the border to what you do online.

Here is the quick map:

The pattern to notice is that your passport, not just your location, decides what you can do. In Seoul or Jeju, a foreigner can walk into a casino that a Korean citizen cannot⁴. In Manila, a tourist can play where a low-income resident cannot¹¹. And in China, the rules follow citizens abroad: gambling overseas, online, or funding gambling operations all violate Chinese law⁵.

For the country-by-country detail on each jurisdiction, see our full guide to gambling laws in Asia.

Vietnam: casinos for foreigners, strict limits for citizens

Vietnam is one of the clearest examples of a two-tier system. Decree 03/2017 allows foreigners and overseas Vietnamese holding a valid foreign passport to gamble at the country's casinos¹. The same decree opened a narrow door for Vietnamese citizens, who must be 21 or older with full civil capacity¹.

In practice, the citizen track comes with an income requirement. Vietnamese individuals 21 or older who can show a minimum income of VNĐ10 million (about US$437) a month can gamble in casinos¹⁶. The Ministry of Finance has proposed tightening this further, with higher casino entry fees for Vietnamese citizens and a continued minimum age of 21 with full legal capacity¹⁷.

Foreigners have a second option beyond the casinos: electronic gaming with prizes, a product line created specifically for foreign players and overseas Vietnamese¹⁰. Players at these venues must carry documents proving they are eligible, follow the house rules, meet any tax obligations, and not bet directly against each other on game results¹⁰.

There is also a small but useful money rule for foreign winners. Foreign players and overseas Vietnamese who win are allowed to buy foreign currency at licensed banks to transfer or carry their winnings abroad¹⁹. That matters in a country with currency controls, so keep your win slips.

What you will not find in Vietnam is legal online betting. The Ministry of Finance has never issued a certificate for online betting businesses, and the activity is expressly prohibited²⁰. The police position is blunt: all gambling and football betting, including online, is prohibited and strictly punished, and "small stakes" does not mean "no punishment"²¹. If you are a foreign resident tempted by an offshore site, know that the same rule covers everyone in the country, not just citizens²¹.

For more on the practical side of visiting, see casinos in Vietnam and our page on gambling in Vietnam.

The Philippines: casinos for visitors, income test for residents

The Philippines runs its gambling through PAGCOR, the state-owned regulator and operator, and its entry rules are written directly into law. The people allowed to play at PAGCOR casinos are:

• tourists and foreigners who are not residents of the Philippines
• residents with a gross income for the previous year of at least P50,000, certified by the Bureau of Internal Revenue
• up to two guests of qualified persons, provided the guests are at least 21¹¹

So as a visitor, you simply walk in. As a foreign resident of the Philippines, you fall under the income test like any other resident, which means bringing proof of income certified by the tax bureau if you want to play¹¹.

There is also a special room concept worth knowing about: the foreign exchange gaming pit. Only persons with foreign passports, or certificates of identity for Hong Kong patrons issued by their government or country of residence, may play in it²². If you see a separate gaming area quoted in dollars, that is what it is.

Online gambling follows the same single-operator logic. Only games regulated under PAGCOR are considered legal, and everything outside its jurisdiction is illegal²³. Players in the country can only legally join sites operated by PAGCOR itself; other operators in the Philippines cannot obtain a license, and it is illegal for them to offer online gambling¹². PAGCOR also warns the public to check its published list of licensees before accessing any offshore gaming site, because fake sites use its name¹³.

One quirk: Philippine residents who cannot join local online casino sites are, in practice, able to frequent offshore-based casinos, and international online casinos accept players from the Philippines¹². Whether that suits your risk appetite is another question; see our page on offshore gambling sites for how this works across Asia.

For the full picture, see gambling in the Philippines.

India: casinos in Goa and Sikkim

India's gambling law is state law, and only two states have casinos. The legal forms of gambling in the country as a whole are state-run lotteries (in some states only), horse racing, rummy card games and casinos in those two states¹⁴.

Goa is the one most visitors encounter. The Goa, Daman and Diu Public Gambling Act 1976 only allows casinos to be set up in five-star hotels or offshore, and only with prior approval from the government²⁴. The law also permits casinos on board and offshore vessels, and lets the government authorize electronic amusement games and slot machines in five-star hotels, plus table games and gaming on board offshore vessels¹⁴. In practice that means two experiences: land-based floors inside luxury hotels, and the well-known floating casinos on the Mandovi River.

Online gambling is a different matter. Under the Information Technology Act 2000, all forms of online gambling are illegal in India, although that act was originally put in place to regulate cybercrime²⁵. So a visitor can legally sit at a blackjack table in Panaji but should not assume the same freedom extends to a phone-based casino app.

For more detail, see gambling in India, and our pages on sports betting law and lottery law.

Thailand: very limited, with a casino bill still in draft

Thailand today has no legal casinos. What it has is a legislative work in progress: a draft entertainment complex bill that would introduce licensed casino resorts. Under the draft framework, the legal casino gambling age would be 18, and an entry levy would be charged to foreigners⁷.

That entry levy idea is worth flagging for anyone planning around the bill. It follows the Singapore model, where a fee at the door discourages casual play. Our page on casino entry levies explains how these work across the region.

Until the bill passes, tourists have no lawful casino in Thailand, and the practical reality is that many Thais and visitors use offshore online sites instead. Those sites targeting Asian markets commonly offer payment methods used by Thai players, such as Help2Pay, Bitcoin, Wealth Pay and ViPAY, and often let players deposit and withdraw in Thai baht⁸. None of that is licensed in Thailand, and our page on gambling in Thailand covers the current state of play in detail.

China: online and cross-border gambling is a crime

China is the strictest jurisdiction in this guide, and the rules apply to foreigners in the country as well as to Chinese citizens.

For citizens, the law is explicit: any form of gambling by Chinese citizens, including online gambling, gambling overseas, and opening casinos overseas to attract Chinese citizens as primary customers, is illegal²⁶. The Ministry of Public Security states that gambling abroad, online gambling, and providing funds or technical support for gambling all violate the Criminal Law and the Public Security Administration Punishment Law⁵.

Online football betting is treated as a crime, not a regulatory matter. Organizing, acting as an agent for, or participating in online football betting constitutes the crimes of opening a gambling house or gambling, punishable by administrative or criminal liability⁶. And there is a financial sting that surprises many players: money lost in online football betting is not protected by law and cannot be recovered⁶.

The enforcement side has also documented how these operations reach players: online gambling is banned in China, and small-time bettors have been found wagering as little as 10 yuan each time while watching live streams of the proceedings on their smartphones⁶. If you are an expat in China, assume that using any online gambling site from Chinese territory carries real risk; see gambling in China and our page on cross-border gambling prosecution.

Japan: no casinos yet, online play is a crime

Japan legislated for integrated resorts with casinos in 2018, but none has opened, so there is no licensed casino floor to visit yet. The 2018 law that permits them also builds in player protections aimed at people living in Japan: limits on the number of visits, an entry fee levy, and restrictions on lending by casino operators, all applied to Japanese nationals and foreigners residing in Japan¹⁵. So when the first resorts do open, a tourist and a foreign resident of Japan will face different rules at the same door.

Online gambling is where Japan is unambiguous. The National Police Agency states that baccarat, slots, sports betting and anything else conducted online is a crime, regardless of its name or content⁹. Playing on an offshore site from Japanese territory is treated as gambling under Japanese law, even though the operator sits abroad.

One genuinely useful point for Japanese nationals who travel: gambling at a casino that is legal in the country visited is not punishable under Japanese law, because the acts occur entirely abroad and no Japanese legal interest is harmed²⁷. A trip to a licensed casino in Korea or the Philippines is a different thing, legally, from betting online from a Tokyo apartment. Our page on gambling abroad covers this distinction across jurisdictions, and gambling in Japan has the full country detail.

Penalties for players: what happens if you are caught

Penalties for players vary enormously, from fines to jail time, and the harshest apply where gambling is criminalized outright.

In China, the Public Security Administration Punishments Law provides detention of up to 5 days or a fine of up to CNY 1,000 for participating in gambling with large stakes or providing conditions for gambling for profit; in serious cases, detention of 10 to 15 days plus a fine of CNY 1,000 to 5,000²⁸. Participants in cross-border gambling face administrative detention and fines, criminal liability if the conduct amounts to a crime, and possibly large property losses on top²⁹.

In Hong Kong, betting with an illegal bookmaker is an offense: on conviction, the maximum is a fine of HKD 50,000 and 9 months in prison³⁰. The same ceiling applies to anyone participating in illegal gambling, including illegal online betting³¹.

In Vietnam, the police warning is that even small-scale betting still draws administrative fines, so the practical risk for a player is a fine rather than a prison sentence at the low end, but the line is not one you want to test²¹.

For a full comparison across jurisdictions, see penalties for gambling in Asia, and for the immigration dimension, deportation for gambling.

Resident or visitor: which rules apply to you

The single most important idea on this page: your status, not your nationality alone, decides which rules apply.

In South Korea, the line is nationality. Casinos at hotels and resorts, including the Hyatt Regency casino, the Majesta Jeju Casino, Jeju KAL Hotel Casino and Paradise Casino Paradise City, are for foreigners only, and Korean nationals are barred from entry, with a narrow exception for overseas emigrants under the Overseas Emigration Act³². A Korean-American on a U.S. passport plays; a Korean citizen does not.

In Japan, the line is residence. The entry limits, entry fee and lending restrictions at the future integrated resorts apply to Japanese nationals and to foreigners residing in Japan alike¹⁵. A tourist from Singapore and a Singaporean with a Japanese residence card will not be treated the same.

In the Philippines, the line is residence plus income. Tourists and non-resident foreigners play freely; residents need certified income of at least P50,000 from the previous year¹¹.

In Vietnam, the line runs both ways. Foreigners and overseas Vietnamese with foreign passports gamble on one track; Vietnamese citizens need age 21, full civil capacity and proof of income¹. Foreign players at prize-game venues must carry documents proving eligibility¹⁰.

Singapore adds a status-based protection worth knowing about even as a visitor: its third-party exclusion and visit limit scheme exists to protect financially vulnerable citizens and permanent residents who gamble at the local casinos or have poor credit records³. It does not apply to foreigners, but it explains why the entry levies and ID checks at Singapore casinos are built around status.

If you are unsure which category you fall into on a given trip, the practical rule is simple: carry the passport or residence documents that match the status you claim, and check our page on casino ID requirements before you go. For the countries that bar local citizens entirely, see which Asian casinos bar locals.