About this app
What is Smoking Dragon?
The contrast with land-based gambling is striking. Casinos in Morocco and Egypt operate within recognised frameworks and, in Morocco, attract international investment. Private online betting remains outside the legal market.
The scale of that unlicensed market is unclear. MDJS’ own estimate of about MAD3.5 billion a year is the only figure available. No comparable public estimate exists for Tunisia or Egypt.
Without a licensing route, these markets remain difficult to measure, tax or supervise. Blocking and criminalisation may disrupt operators, but they do not remove demand. Governments are left trying to suppress offshore betting rather than bring it within a regulated market.
About Smoking Dragon
Hopefully it will be a better one. It’s up to each and every one of us to make it better, once all this mess is cleared out for good, along with all the considerable collateral damage.
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And thanks to Calvin for being one of the moral billionaires who (believe it or not) isn’t maniacally obsessed with the idea of world domination. It’s refreshing. Good luck to him, and to all of you. See you at EGI!
What is Smoking Dragon?
The Commission launched its investigation into various reports of insider betting on the election date in June 2024 after Ladbrokes flagged a bet placed by Williams, who was recorded as a politically exposed person.
Further bets flagged by operators involved other politically sensitive individuals, including Metropolitan Police officers and political advisers. The Commission charged 15 people total in April 2025. Four have now pleaded guilty.
The offences relate to special betting markets that let customers wager on the exact date of the general election.
