Pakistan Casinos

Introduction

Pakistan, or the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, as it is officially called, is a far larger country than most people understand. It is the fifth-most populous one, housing more than two hundred and fifty million people, and is the thirty-third largest nation if we were to count them by land mass. It is a South Asian country, known to many as India’s neighbor to the west, and as a land renowned for its breathtaking mountains and its love for cricket. Pakistan is also a country with the second-largest Muslim population, and as such, it is probably no shock to anyone that it has a general prohibition on gambling, which is rooted in the Islamic faith. Gambling is haram here, or, in other words, it is forbidden, a stance that got set firm in Pakistan’s legislature in 1977, when it passed its Prevention of Gambling Act. That law banned all forms of betting within Pakistan’s borders, the only exception being wagering on horse races, if they involved the tote system.

Because the cited Prevention of Gambling Act, which is still in force, predates the Internet, it does not address online gambling, which many use as an excuse to say that it does not apply to this form of betting. The online sphere is a jurisdictional void of sorts, not covered by any law. That said, the nation’s Telecommunication Authority does block foreign gambling sites, and so does the National Cyber Crime and Investigation Agency. But, this does not stop Pakistani players from enjoying online casino games at internationally licensed platforms, as there is no statute that criminalizes this behavior. As in most other countries, authorities focus on companies providing illegal gambling services; they do not bother chasing around individual players. Thus, most of the foreign, or offshore, casino realm is open to Pakistanis willing to test their luck on games of chance, and in this Pakistan online casino guide, we seek to supply all the information needed for you to do this safely.

Tips for Online Gambling in Pakistan

As explained, current Pakistani law does not allow casino gambling, nor does it permit sports betting or card games for real money. This means that Pakistan has no gambling regulatory authority, and it has no land-based gaming venues or websites that offer products akin to those found at physical establishments. Because there are no state or private operators authorized to offer games of chance to Pakistani players, the only option for those interested in exploring this form of entertainment is international casino sites, something the Internet is not short of. Accordingly, for you to be able to pick out high-quality ones, you need to know the basics of this sphere, and here are the top three tips on how to spot a bad casino that you should begin your gaming home selection journey with.

Find trustworthy reviews

We already mentioned that the online gambling domain is jam-packed with sites featuring all the popular gaming genres. However, while this is a good thing, it can also be a negative, especially for newbies who do not know how to discern a reputable, top-notch online casino from one masquerading as such a platform. Make no mistake about it, the industry is riddled with shady operators, ones that will go to great lengths to trick users into signing up, and they do this by flaunting seemingly generous bonuses that have poor terms you cannot complete. This is why sphere newcomers should not go with the flashiest site, but with the ones that sector veterans have vouched for.

Our staff at Wizard of Odds has been trained to identify trusted operators and high-quality gaming hubs. They have been at this for years, some even decades, so they are well versed in spotting all the common pitfalls and marketing tricks, which is why you should read our WoO reviews before settling on a site. You should also look at what other famous reviewers have said about your considered brands, and if you don’t know any, here are some we recommend you check out:

Trusted Portals

• Latest Casino Bonuses
• World Casino Directory

Look at our blacklist

This is a collection of sites that have disappointed us, their users, and business partners by either providing a low level of service or by engaging in poor behavior that is deemed unacceptable in the sector. Hence, we would advise you that you always go through our WoO blacklist to see if a site you are thinking about joining has been added to this Wizard of Odds website page, because if it has, you should drop it from the running of it potentially being your new gaming home. Trust us, any brand on our blacklist is not worth your time, and by not giving it any, you will save yourself much unneeded hassle.

There are various reasons why a platform has been flagged by us, but know that all of them have been confirmed and deemed valid. We do not just take scorned ex-users’ word that an operator has done them wrong. No. We do our own research, and after concluding that something nefarious has been done, we reach out to the party in question, asking for an explanation. Only after not getting a satisfactory one do we flag them. So, our blacklist is legit, and you can trust it, as we always play fair.

Read the T&C

For Pakistanis and online gamblers from all other corners of the world, skipping the terms and conditions, not reading this casino page, can prove to be super detrimental. Why? Well, because it is the contractual essentials you are agreeing to when you sign up with a given site. Naturally, you cannot only read this massive wall of text, but you also need to understand what is being said in its content. This is why leaning on top reviewers is so vital for novice players, because it takes some time to grasp sector lingo and term traps.

Nevertheless, just taking what reviewers have to say can also prove to be a bad move, because no one can continuously update all of their casino reviews so they are in sync with the latest T&C changes that casino sites perform. Operators often modify their rules of service without warning, which is why you need to carefully review them before registering, to know how many times you need to wager your site deposits, if you can use a VPN service, what betting strategies are allowed, and so on. Not going through the T&C can be a major mistake, so give this section a quick once-over at any considered brand, and Google everything that you do not understand, or which appears shady.

Licensed and Regulated Pakistani Casinos

We explained in the intro that Pakistan has strict prohibitions, and because of this, it does not permit any company to offer remote casino gaming to its residents. That means that it has no dedicated gambling regulator, no body that supplies casino licenses for online games. On account of the interactive gaming arena being so strictly prohibited here, Pakistani players have to use foreign or international casino websites, sometimes also referred to as offshore ones. The thing with these is that they are licensed platforms, just not in Pakistan. They have gotten regulatory approval to offer their services in the country from which they operate, and that is usually a smaller one, typically an island country with a poor economic outlook aside from tourism.

The thing with these foreign jurisdictions that allow online gambling operators to function from their soil is that they do have dedicated bodies that license and monitor these companies, and these organizations, like the Curacao Gaming Control Board, for example, copy many of their rules from their European peers. Though not all of these bodies are as rigorous in applying their rules as their Old Continent counterparts, with some being super lax in doing so. This is why you should check the homepage footer of shortlisted hubs to see who has licensed them, and then see if the body that has approved them is credible or not.

Casino Trust and Security

A valid casino license should ensure a few security basics, like the implementation of advanced firewalls that stop unauthorized access, SSL/TLS encryption that keeps user data (financial and personal) safe during transactions, Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) protection, KYC verification, and game auditing. The latter is a reference to independent audits being run on casino games by third-party agencies that verify fairness, but can also stretch out to a site’s system and security features, ensuring its integrity regarding user safety.

A top-rated casino should also have two- or multi-factor authentication to keep accounts safer, it should limit employees’ access to data, have PCI DSS compliance if it accesses credit or debit cards, store crypto funds in cold wallets that are virtually immune to hacks, incorporate tokenization, have tools that stop player collusion and detect cheating, allow loss, session, and deposit limiting, self-exclusion, and feature 24/7 support. A site boasting clear, transparent terms and running a bug bounty program are two super positive reliability signs that you should pay attention to.

Banking Options for Pakistani Players

There are a few popular modern payment methods that younger Pakistanis especially love using. These are JazzCash, a renowned e-wallet, Easypaisa, a mobile payment service, UPaisa, another app, SadaPay, which is banking software, and NayaPay, which is similar, too, heavily used for online transactions. Now, while these money transfer options are very prevalent among young Pakistani adults, they are not super prevalent at offshore casino sites. Moreover, using methods that directly tie into Pakistani bank accounts is not smart, due to the State Bank of Pakistan, or SBP, tracking and prohibiting gambling transactions.Mobile wallets like JazzCash and Easypaisa use P2P infrastructure, so they should be fine, but they are rarely offered by internationally regulated operators, unless these companies specifically target Pakistani players.

To avoid any potential problems, something that many Pakistanis who like to play online casino games like to do is to deposit PKR into a CashMaal account using a local payment method, and then transfer those funds to an e-wallet like Payeer or Perfect Money, which they then use for interactive gaming fun. Thus, using such intermediaries is a good way to avoid any hassles, and the same goes for utilizing Easypaisa and JazzCash. Though without question, the best way to go about gaming online is to deposit and withdraw in cryptos like USDT, BTC, ETH, or other established coins.

Depositing and Withdrawing in Pakistan

Of course, you should first scan what payment choices a considered iGaming platform has made available to users from Pakistan. For the most part, you can only do this after you have created an account with a casino site. That process should not take you more than two minutes at most hubs, and it will entail you typing in some personal info in a dedicated registration form, which you can pop open by hitting a Join Now/Register/Sign Up homepage button, usually prominently placed on a promo banner.

After you complete the account-creation procedure and become a member of a Pakistani online casino, you can then open its Payment window by clicking the homepage's deposit button. It should launch on the Deposit tab, as it usually does, by default. There, you can go through all the payment methods on hand for Pakistani players and pick one. Once you make your selection, you will be guided to a new page where you will have to enter your transaction method credentials and desired deposit sum, after which you will be asked to confirm the transaction and possibly authenticate it on your device or app. That is it. The transfer should go through in seconds, and this should happen regardless of what transaction option you have chosen.

Withdrawal follows similar steps, but it can be more complicated on account of Know Your Customer – KYC – regulations, which pretty much all licensed casinos must adhere to, and which require that you supply identity-proving documentation. After you do so, you will be forced to wait one to three days, typically, for the site staff to verify the documents you have uploaded and confirm that you are eligible for a withdrawal. Once all that is done, the payout process gets conducted through the same Payment window you used for depositing, and in most cases, you will get restricted to the same method you used for account funding, because of AML – anti-money laundering – regulations. The steps will be almost identical to those for depositing, but please ensure that you have cleared all the conditions of any bonus claimed; otherwise, you will not be allowed to take out any bonus-attained winnings.

Regarding speed, cryptos should always be a faster choice than electronic or mobile wallets, facilitating cash-outs in under an hour if a casino automatically processes payouts with no need for manual reviews.

Best Casino Games & Software in Pakistani Casinos

Given that Pakistanis can access many famous online casinos, ones regulated in small jurisdictions that license sites that accept players from dozens of nations, essentially all the games this sphere has to offer are playable by Pakistanis. This means that if you put in some effort, you should be able to track down gaming websites that host all the games that have piqued your interest. This is so because foreign casino sites that let Pakistanis sign up have robust game libraries packed with titles from multiple studios, because their regulators customarily have approved all interested parties to team up with their licensees.

Accordingly, it is no struggle to find casinos catering to Pakistani gamblers that are stacked with products from providers like Pragmatic Play, EGT/Amusnet, Quickspin, Blueprint Gaming, Big Time Gaming, Playson, Play’n GO, NetEnt, Relax Gaming, Nolimit City, Betsoft, Hacksaw Gaming, and so on. Now, the three genres that Pakistanis seem to adore the most are the same ones that players from other parts of the world prefer, and they are:

Slots

There are simple reasons that online slots rule the Internet gaming landscape to the same degree that they have dominion over the brick-and-mortar section of the industry as well. The first one is that they are super straightforward to play; you just hit a button, and the game does the rest of the work for you. Yes, newer titles can feature complex game engines like cascades, MultiWays, PopWins, and many others, but this does not change the fact that all you have to do is watch if a winning combo forms on your screen or not. There is no added mental power you need to use besides setting a stake and pressing spin.

The other reason everyone loves reel-spinning games is that they cover hundreds, if not thousands, of themes, are beautiful to look at, have immersive soundtracks, and deliver jaw-dropping wins. Modern progressive slots, such as those from NetEnt, Games Global, and Blueprint, can supply prizes in the millions, truly changing players’ lives.

Table games

Now, table games cannot change lives like slots can, because their payouts are much lower. Not counting progressive wins, slots often have max wins created by in-round multipliers of 5,000x or higher. In RNG table entertainment, meaning software versions of games like blackjack, roulette, baccarat, and casino poker variants, for the most part, the wins are much less substantial, only a few times your bet. Nonetheless, the perk of such titles is that they have better odds than most slots, with twenty-one actions providing a house edge of only 0.5% if you know how to read a strategy chart.

The benefits of random number generator-powered table games are, too, that you can auto-play sessions, enjoy variants not found at land-based casinos, and play all options from this genre at very low stakes, super-fast.

Live Dealer Options for Pakistani Players

In 2003, Playtech decided to experiment with the table genre by giving it a live twist, adding dealers in studios who would conduct games streamed all over the world. This format did not instantly catch fire because technical and regulatory limitations stopped it from gaining swift popularity. It began to catch its stride in the second half of the 2010s, and it was at this time that providers started to branch out from classic table options into wheel-based games that feature a game-show vibe. Evolution did this first with Dream Catcher in 2017, and now this category is an online casino staple.

The mentioned Evolution is noted as this format’s king, facing fierce competition from Pragmatic Play Live, and losing some market share to lesser-powered studios like Authentic Gaming, Vivo Gaming, LuckyStreak, and many others. The main appeal of live casino games is the gaming authenticity they bring, their social aspect, and the fact that many can accept super high stakes, in the several thousands of dollars per round.

Online Casino Bonuses for Pakistani Players

Pakistanis have been using foreign casino platforms for years, technically since they debuted in the mid-1990s. Therefore, most players from the country know all about bonuses and how they are used for platform marketing. They are operators’ go-to tools for snagging new customers, as they promise on-the-house extended play or getting back lost funds. This triggers the desire to get such rewards in most players, which is the psychological effect that operators look to evoke in people.

But, it is vital to remember that casino bonuses are often not all they are cracked up to be. They are riddled with different types of terms, like the all-important wagering requirement, sometimes called the playthrough or the rollover, which tells you how many times you must bet your bonus and deposit before you are able to get your promo winnings. A general rule is that a wagering requirement over 40x is definitely hard to complete, but even one under this figure can be hard to fulfill if it notes that you can only use specific games and bet sizes to do so. For instance, many bonuses exclude live games from wagering requirement completion, and they give RNG tables a 10% contribution.

Promotions also come with win caps, restricting how much you can profit from them, and they have expiry time limits, sometimes giving you as little as three days to complete all their stipulations. They can also ban high RTP slots and spinners with bonus-buy features from promo use. This is why you should always read their terms and run them through an expected value calculator to quickly learn their true worth.

Most sites list deposit matches for new users, sometimes spicing these deals up with free spins. But you can also expect cashback deals at the majority of the casinos you look at, as well as multi-tier VIP systems and betting contests.

Problem Gambling in Pakistan

As a country with strong cultural and religious opposition toward betting pastimes, Pakistan, expectedly, does not have a robust infrastructure dedicated to dealing with gambling addiction. It is a reasonable expectation that it will have a low number of problem gamblers, because it does not have a regulated market. Naturally, this is not the case, since many of its residents use foreign casino sites, and some do develop impulse control issues connected to wagering on games of chance. Those that do can look to support organizations like Willing Ways Pakistan, Shifa Therapy, and Apka Muallij, as parties that openly look to help those suffering from this problem.

There is also private counseling via private clinics, religious guidance, and international resources online. There are a number of organizations, like Gamblers Anonymous, that have online chats and forums that supply assistance to individuals regardless of their place of residence. Foreign platforms, too, traditionally look to keep their customers in check by giving them self-exclusion and limiting tools.

Conclusion

Pakistan has no legal online casinos. Sharia Law forbids gambling, and this is something that has been written into the country’s legislation, where a prohibition of betting is enforced under Pakistan’s Prevention of Gambling Act 1977. Though enforcement of this law is geared towards operators, not individuals, which is why Pakistani players use foreign casinos as a means to curb their online gambling appetites. These sites are very popular right now, due to crypto acceptance, diverse bonuses, and having many games. When selecting between them, please put to use the tips we gave you above, because if you do, you are sure to land on a safe and varied Pakistani online casino.

Written by: Michael Shackleford