Egypt will incorporate online betting regulation into a broader Digital Safety Law that the government is expected to send to Parliament in about six weeks, Ahmed Badawi, chair of the House of Representatives' Communications and Information Technology Committee, said on 1 November.
Betting apps have defrauded hundreds of thousands of Egyptians, targeting people aged 20 to 60, with some users spending 24 hours at a stretch on the platforms, Badawi said. The new law will extend beyond website and app blocking to pursue betting brokers and their representatives in Egypt, as well as anyone promoting the platforms or helping citizens access them.
This marks a missed deadline. In May, Badawi said amendments to the Cybercrime Law (Law 175 of 2018) would reach Parliament within a month, with penalties of up to seven years in prison and fines of EGP500,000 for creating apps used in cybercrime. The bill never materialised. The betting provisions will now be folded into the wider Digital Safety Law alongside amendments to the Cybercrime Law, legislation regulating children's social media use, and protections for adults from technology risks.
Egypt has relied primarily on blocking. By May, authorities had blocked 70 betting apps. Badawi cited the Cybercrime Law as a model; its stiffer penalties, including life imprisonment, have significantly reduced electronic blackmail. On 3 November, the Interior Ministry said its organised crime unit had taken legal action against four suspects accused of laundering around EGP50m from betting and cryptocurrency speculation. The suspects allegedly established companies and purchased property, vehicles and motorcycles to conceal the money's origins. Prosecutors ordered the arrest of an additional suspect and seizure of the defendants' mobile phones to trace their contacts and financial dealings.
