Tunisia is preparing to thoroughly review its legal framework relating to gambling. This reform, one of the most important in more than half a century, responds to a simple observation: the current texts are no longer adapted to today’s reality.
The debate on the Tunisian regulatory environment has been revived by the need to modernize laws that have become obsolete. Written in 1974, at a time when the Internet did not exist, they cannot effectively regulate an ecosystem of online betting and gaming which has evolved profoundly.
The bill, supported by certain deputies, relies largely on a blocking strategy: it plans in particular to force Internet service providers (ISPs), application stores and payment providers to restrict access to gaming platforms. The authors of the text say they want to protect consumers and preserve financial stability. However, experience shows that access control alone is not enough.
Because the demand for online gambling already exists in Tunisia. The online casinos in Arabic presented on the comparison platform haz-tayeb.com/fr/ already meet this demand and welcome Tunisian players.
These platforms generally operate under licenses issued by recognized international jurisdictions. Closing them without offering a local and supervised alternative will not make demand disappear: it will simply shift uses, sometimes towards solutions that are more difficult to control.
In fact, circumventing access restrictions is not insurmountable. Blocking measures may discourage some casual players, but more experienced users often find ways to maintain access.
Ultimately, beyond the regulatory issue, Tunisia deprives itself of an important economic lever: the income linked to these activities continues to benefit the countries where these operators are licensed, instead of contributing to the local economy.
Balanced regulation is the way forward
The Tunisian government must implement a new approach, based precisely on the technologies that some lawmakers now perceive as a threat.
It is enough to observe what is done elsewhere: in many jurisdictions, States no longer resort to general bans or solely repressive regulation of online gambling.
France, for example, relies on digital tools such as identity verification, geolocation checks, transaction monitoring, data sharing agreements and real-time risk analysis to maintain control of the sector.
Thanks to modern compliance technologies, French authorities can more closely enforce age limits, regulate spending, detect risky behavior and monitor suspicious financial flows with significantly greater precision.
This type of system reinforces the responsibility of approved operators: they are subject to regular audits, sanctions, or even the withdrawal of their license. Conversely, when the activity takes place abroad, national authorities lose a large part of their capacity for action.
Some may fear that such an orientation breaks with Tunisian values. In reality, it is above all an extension of them, adapted to a digital context that has become essential.
Since the 2011 revolution, the Internet has occupied a strong symbolic place in Tunisia. Online spaces allowed citizens to mobilize, share information, and then contribute to the overthrow of the regime of Zine El Abidine Ben Ali.
Digital freedom has thus become associated with dignity, participation and openness — sensitive principles, still strongly defended.
In this context, monitoring the digital ecosystem on a large scale is technically complex, expensive and culturally risky. Measures designed to control betting and gaming can easily extend to other forms of control, weakening trust and fueling disquiet within Tunisian society.
Responsibility is the central issue
Tunisia needs a more open regulatory model, based on a licensing system and the use of technologies. Instead of asking Internet service providers and financial institutions to monitor the citizens they are supposed to serve, the state should set clear rules for market participation and precisely regulate operators. This approach establishes real responsibility, a particularly important notion in Tunisia.
As the country seeks new sources of revenue, digital investments and skilled employment opportunities, gambling regulated by law (translation of the anchor regulated gambling) could generate licensing fees, tax revenues, jobs and technical partnerships. This would also make it possible to maintain spending within the national ecosystem, rather than seeing it go abroad.
This does not mean that the social risks of gambling should be minimized. They are real. But regulation driven by technology is precisely the way to deal with them. Where the ban offers moral clarity, in practice it remains blind and ineffective. Regulation, even imperfect, provides concrete control with real tools. Tunisia must now decide.
In a rapidly evolving digital environment, the challenge for Tunisia is not to remain out of step with global technological dynamics. States retain a real capacity for influence when their rules advance at the same pace as innovation. Conversely, when the legal framework stagnates, it is market players who impose their own rules, often outside of any national control.
