Vanuatu’s gambling culture is best understood in two halves. Domestically it is small and low-key: a handful of hotel-based casinos in Port Vila, a national lottery, and a broadly Christian, community-oriented society where gambling is not a cultural centrepiece. Internationally, Vanuatu punches above its weight as an offshore online-gaming licensing hub, issuing interactive gaming licences to operators who serve players abroad. So the country’s most significant gambling footprint is regulatory and export-facing, not a large local betting scene. Public data on this very small market is limited, so parts of the picture below are necessarily qualitative.

A short history of gambling law

Vanuatu’s gambling legislation developed over several decades. The land-based casino sector operates under the Casino Control Act 1993, and dedicated casino venues have existed in Port Vila since the early 1990s (Casino 21, for example, dates to 1992). Online/interactive gaming is governed by the Interactive Gaming Act [Cap 261], and the country has issued interactive gaming licences for many years; the framework was substantially modernised in July 2024 with a new online application portal and fee structure administered by the Vanuatu Gaming Authority.

Land-based casinos in Port Vila

Vanuatu’s physical casino scene is concentrated in the capital, Port Vila, inside hotels. Venues such as the Grand Hotel and Casino Vanuatu offer table games (roulette, blackjack, poker variants) and slot/video-poker machines. It is a compact, tourism-oriented market serving visitors and a limited local clientele rather than a mass-market gambling destination.

The national lottery

Vanuatu has a national lottery presence through the Vanuatu Lottery Corporation. Publicly available information indicates it operates via physical tickets rather than online play. Beyond that, detailed public data on the domestic lottery is limited, so we avoid stating figures we cannot verify.

The offshore licensing role

Where Vanuatu is genuinely significant is as an offshore online-gaming licensing jurisdiction. Its interactive gaming licence lets operators serve international players from a Vanuatu-registered company, a role comparable to other offshore licensing hubs. The 2024 reforms — a EUR 5,000 application fee, EUR 10,000 annual fee, 15-year term and 1% wagering tax — were explicitly aimed at operators targeting pre-regulated international markets, not Vanuatu residents.

Local attitudes

Vanuatu is a small Melanesian nation with strong church and community traditions. In that context, heavy gambling is not a cultural mainstay, and domestic gambling remains modest and largely tied to tourism. Because published data on local gambling attitudes and participation is limited, we keep this assessment qualitative rather than citing numbers we cannot substantiate.

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