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 Marshall Islands · Question 01 of 11

# Overview: What kind of market is this?

Unfavourable · Probable · AI-generated · [Back to full Marshall Islands report →](https://advennt.io/jurisdictions/marshall-islands/)

Key section parameters

| Jurisdiction | Marshall Islands (MH) |
|---|---|
| Regulator | None — Gambling Prohibited (Ministry of Justice / National Police) |
| Favourability | Unfavourable |
| Confidence | Probable |
| Review status | AI-generated |
| Last collected | 18 Oct 2026 |

Summary answer

The Marshall Islands maintains a blanket statutory prohibition on gaming and gambling under 31 MIRC Ch.4, the Gaming and Recreation Prohibition Act 1998, which permits no commercial licensing pathway of any kind. The only lawful gambling-adjacent activity is a narrow, locally administered permit tha…

### Key headwinds & conditions

- Blanket statutory prohibition (s.402) with criminal and daily civil penalties (s.404)
- No licensing authority or application pathway of any kind
- FATF MER reads the prohibition as extending to online/offshore-facing gambling

## Full section analysis

The Marshall Islands maintains a blanket statutory prohibition on gaming and gambling under 31 MIRC Ch.4, the Gaming and Recreation Prohibition Act 1998, which permits no commercial licensing pathway of any kind. The only lawful gambling-adjacent activity is a narrow, locally administered permit that government councils may issue for one-off, non-profit bingo, raffle, or cakewalk events. No dedicated gambling regulator sits atop this framework; enforcement runs instead through national and local police acting on statutory powers. The Asia-Pacific Group on Money Laundering's Mutual Evaluation Report, published in November 2024, is the only secondary corroboration available for this baseline, and it independently confirms that no casinos operate in the jurisdiction. Taken together, the statute and the Mutual Evaluation Report describe a closed-market jurisdiction with a thin public record, where the prohibition's reach into online and maritime channels is read in by evaluators rather than stated in the Act's own text.