Legitimacy of playing roulette in Muslim countries
|Gambling in any form is legally prohibited in some of the Muslim countries including Saudi Arabia. For people of these countries and tourists or business travellers the only way to play roulette will be in online casinos. The greatest advantage here is you can place your bet in any online casinos from anywhere in the world. Roulette is a traditional table game in which people place bets on numbers, range of numbers or colours of the slots. The roulette wheel has numbers randomly placed and it spins at a very fast speed. A ball rotates on the wheel and when the wheel stops gradually, the ball settles on a number. People who have placed their bet on that number win the money. It is one of the most popular casino games that have attracted gamblers for a long time. With the advent of the Internet and technical advancements, roulette found its new avatar in online casinos.
Any form of gambling is prohibited according to Islamic laws and therefore many Islamic countries including Saudi Arabia have imposed a complete ban on every form of it. Because of Saudi Arabia’s socio-economic importance in today’s time, the country welcomes a steady flow of business visitors, diplomats and tourists from all across the world. The country has all the infrastructure to support a thriving economy and a growing tourism sector. It has all the reputed Five star hotel chains and other decent accommodations to cater to the visitors and the facilities offered in those establishment is at par international standards. But, adhering to the rules none of the hotels have casinos or any other place where people can legally indulge into gambling. Saudi rules are quite strict and the process of implementation of the law is also stringent. As a result, people generally abide by the rules. So, playing roulette in conventional casino is legally not possible here. There are, however, illegal joints where people can enjoy roulette and other forms of casino games. But, one should be aware of the consequences, if caught in the act.
Online gambling also is strictly prohibited in Saudi Arabia and other Islamic countries. Internet censoring is extremely pervasive in Saudi Arabia and the authorities have placed some highly sophisticated internet filtering system that periodically block websites offering gambling and other illegal activities. In recent past, over 40,000 such websites have been blocked by the authorities. Hackers are employed by the government to identify Twitter accounts of people offering such services as well. So, people can only play online roulette secretly, but they constantly run the fear of the harsh punishments as those who participate in illicit land-based gambling. Other Muslim gulf countries, E.g. Kuwait and the UAE, display a more lenient approach and do not actively block online gambling. See for example the roulette page of www.Saudicasinos.com, highly popular Arabic-language portal among Kuwaiti visitors, where you can find useful tips for playing and references to online roulette providers. For rest of the world, leaving few exceptions (for example, Poland) online gambling is either legal or not regulated. In some countries, like France and Iceland, it is not legal but offenders are not prosecuted. In Saudi Arabia and some other Islamic countries it is better to check the legalities before engaging in any gambling activities including roulette. For pure fun and entertainment one can play in armature online roulette wheels but one should refrain from any monetary transactions.