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Despite legal and religious prohibitions, online gambling is quietly on the rise in Iran, offering an illusory hope of gain to many worn out by economic hardship.
The phenomenon is steeped in contradiction, with many platforms operating in plain sight despite the Islamic prohibition of gambling.
While supreme leader Ali Khamenei recently ruled that predicting sports outcomes for prizes is not inherently forbidden (haram), Iran’s judiciary continues to treat gambling as a criminal offense—punishable by lashes and imprisonment.
Still, with the national currency, the rial, in free fall and opportunities dwindling, many see gambling as one of the few remaining ways to beat inflation—or to reclaim a fleeting sense of freedom.
Bet to breathe
For Maryam, 49, a former schoolteacher, online poker began as a form of relief from daily suffocation.
"In Iran, we are prisoners—not just of the regime, but of our own despair," she says from her Tehran apartment. "The leaders want to drag us back to rules from 1,400 years ago, while the world moves forward. These games … they let me breathe."
She’s lost several months’ wages in a single night but insists the emotional release is worth it. "When I win, I feel like I’ve beaten the system. When I lose, at least I was free for a moment."
Mohammad, 35, a software engineer, sees gambling less as a thrill than as a necessity. "Look at our currency," he says. "You save 100 million rials today, and in six months, it buys half as much."
Using VPNs to access offshore sportsbooks, he trades in dollars or cryptocurrency to hedge against both inflation and sanctions. "Gambling isn’t a game here—it’s a financial tactic."
Loopholes, laundering, and lashes
The rise in betting has exposed a divide at the highest levels of authority.
While Khamenei’s office has carved out a religious loophole for prize-based predictions, senior Shi’a jurists like Ayatollah Makarem Shirazi maintain that all forms of monetary betting are haram.
Due to this inconsistency, perhaps, enforcement remains patchy and ineffective.
Although Iran’s Cyber Police (FATA) have shuttered over 1,500 gambling websites since 2021 and frozen 72 billion tomans in suspected gambling funds, many platforms operate freely, using registered banking gateways that suggest official indifference—or even complicity.
Tehran MP Mojtaba Tavangar recently called on Iran’s Central Bank to impose tighter controls on the country’s 3.8 million unregistered point-of-sale (POS) systems, which he says are conduits for illicit cash flows.
He blamed anonymous banking transactions for fueling the online gambling surge, asserting that $1 billion in gambling profits exited the country last year.
The warning was echoed by senior FATA official Ali Niknafs, who accused payment processors of enabling a “black-market economy” and faulted the Central Bank for what he called lax oversight.
A symptom, not a vice
Gambling is a rising concern in many societies, but in Iran, it thrives in the shadows—fueled by economic despair, filtered through VPNs, and punished with lashes.
What elsewhere may be a regulated vice has here become an act of defiance and desperation, shaped by repression and the absence of lawful outlets for risk or relief.
Experts say Iran’s gambling boom reflects a deeper breakdown.
"When people lose faith in banks and jobs, they turn to risky alternatives," says Stockholm-based economist Ahmad Alavi. "The regime blames Western decadence, but the real problem is their own mismanagement."
The growing habit is now affecting workplaces too.
"Employees gamble during work hours—some even stealing to cover losses," says an IT supervisor at a Tehran bank who asked not to be named. "We fire them, but new ones do the same thing."
Saman, another IT manager, says he has deployed firewalls and screen monitoring systems, only to see workers bypass them using secret Telegram channels and disguised apps.
With VPN usage at record highs and underground betting networks expanding, crackdowns—by officials or employers—appear increasingly futile. More and more people chase the dream in desperation, many aware it’s an illusion but not seeing any alternative.
"We’re trapped in a broken system," Maryam says. "So we roll the dice."
Israeli air strikes rocked Beirut's southern suburbs on Thursday after its military accused Hezbollah of manufacturing attack drones there with Iranian assistance.
Lebanese television news channels showed explosions and plumes of smoke in the area, a center of support for the Iran-backed armed group.
"Despite the understandings between Israel and Lebanon, the IDF has identified that the Hezbollah aerial unit is operating to produce thousands of UAVs, with the direction and funding of Iranian terrorists," Israel's military said on X, referring to acronyms for itself and drones.
State Department spokesperson Tommy Pigott said Thursday that Special Envoy Steve Witkoff had sent a detailed proposal to Iran and that “it is in their best interest to accept it.”
“We’ve also been clear again and again and again that the Iranian regime can never have a nuclear weapon, that there is a good option and a bad option in regards to that,” he said at the daily press briefing.
Asked whether the next round of talks would depend on Iran’s response to the proposal, Pigott said: “We expect to meet with the Iranians again soon. But beyond that, I have nothing to preview.”
"The United States is trying to deny Iran's natural and international right to enrichment, which is recognized in the Non-Proliferation Treaty," Iran's Parliament Speaker Mohammad-Bagher Ghalibaf said on Thursday.
"The United States is trying to pressure the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) into releasing selective and unrealistic reports in order to manipulate public opinion and hijack the legal process in its favor," Ghalibaf said while attending the Brics Parliamentary Forum in Brasilia.
The location of a proposed uranium enrichment consortium to help resolve Iran's nuclear impasse is emerging as a central point of contention, as Tehran insists enrichment must occur on its own soil.
Axios and The New York Times reported earlier this week that US negotiator Steve Witkoff has proposed creating a regional consortium to break the deadlock in stalled nuclear talks.
In a June 4 speech, Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei rejected the US proposal—delivered by Oman’s Foreign Minister Badr Albusaidi on May 31—saying a halt to enrichment inside Iran was “out of the question.”
Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Esmail Baghaei had earlier said Tehran would welcome a nuclear fuel consortium “if it were proposed,” but added: “It cannot be a substitute for enrichment within Iran.”
Details of the proposal
According to Axios on June 2, Witkoff’s proposal would, restrict enrichment to civilian-grade levels (3%), suspend underground enrichment for a negotiated period, limit above-ground enrichment to reactor fuel standards under IAEA guidelines and require Iran’s immediate adoption of the IAEA’s Additional Protocol
On June 3, Axios quoted a senior Iranian official as saying Iran might accept a consortium based in Iran—but not if enrichment occurred elsewhere.
Qeshm, Kish or some other island?
A New York Times report on the same day noted that Omani and Saudi officials had discussed placing the facility on a Persian Gulf island.
“This would potentially give both sides a talking point,” the Times wrote, with Iran claiming enrichment is still happening and the US saying it isn’t on Iranian soil.
Israel Hayom cited an unnamed Arab source suggesting the facility might be built on one of three disputed islands: Greater Tunb, Lesser Tunb or Abu Musa. All are controlled by Iran but claimed by the UAE.
The outlet described the idea as a “diplomatic sleight of hand,” sparking backlash on Iranian social media, where critics warned it would undermine Iran’s sovereignty claims.
Alternative: the Oman model
Some nuclear experts, including former Iranian negotiator Hossein Mousavian, have promoted a model where Oman would host the facility, operated by Iran under IAEA supervision.
In this setup, ore would be processed in Saudi Arabia, enriched product would be stored there and a commercial office based in the UAE.
Possible participants
Axios reported the consortium could include the US, Iran, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Qatar, and possibly Turkey. Other outlets have mentioned Oman, Egypt, and Russia.
A June 3 editorial in Arman-e Melli argued Egypt’s inclusion would offer both regional legitimacy and diplomatic utility.
“Egypt’s good relations with the US and Europe could serve as a bridge between Iran and the West,” it noted.
