Two casinos trade under the 888 name, and only one of them wants Gulf players in Arabic. evoke plc's 888casino.com has no Arabic version, excludes Kuwait and wound down its Middle East VIP business in January 2023. The Arabic 888 is a separate Curaçao operator, Sunflower Seed B.V., and we found no source confirming a trademark licence between the two. Our full review covers who runs what. For registration, the consequence is practical: sign up on the wrong 888 and you hold an account at a different company.
A plain word on the law before the steps. Gambling by individuals is an offence in the UAE, Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain and Oman, and the UAE, Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain and Oman guides cite the articles and penalties. Internet providers are required to block gambling sites, and we do not publish ways around that.
Step 1: find the Arabic 888, not 888casino.com
The Arabic site currently lives at ar.888gcc.com. It has moved several times, through 888casino1.com, 888casino-gcc.com and ar888games2.com, and old addresses in search results or messages are exactly where copies appear. The safest route is our partner button at the foot of this page, which runs through the affiliate programme the operator itself uses. Once you have registered, bookmark the page you land on and use that bookmark from then on.
Check the footer before you enter anything. It should name Sunflower Seed B.V., Curaçao registration 157063, Curaçao Gaming Control Board licence OGL/2024/198/0418, and JD Just Tech Limited in Cyprus as payment agent. A casual copy rarely gets all four right. The login guide has more checks for spotting a clone.
The site also claims "since 1997" and industry awards. Those belong to evoke's 888, not to this operator, so give them no weight.
Step 2: complete the sign-up form
The interface is in Arabic throughout, in standard Arabic rather than dialect. We have not recorded the form field by field, and the operator's terms page returned an error when we checked, so expect the usual set for a Curaçao casino rather than a fixed list: email, password, full name, date of birth, country, address and a mobile number, with an email confirmation step. Three things matter more than the fields.
- Your name exactly as on your ID. The account, the ID and the payment method must match, including how an Arabic name is transliterated. "Mohammed" on the passport and "Mohamed" on a Skrill account is enough to stall a payout.
- Your real country. Our records show the UAE, Qatar, Kuwait and Oman as accepted; Bahrain is not confirmed, so check the country list before you go further.
- One account only. One per person, household, IP address and payment method. A duplicate is normally closed with any bonus and winnings voided.
Support is worth knowing about before you start: Arabic live chat is claimed by affiliates but not confirmed by us, and the help link leads to an English-language help centre. Expect to read the site in Arabic and, quite possibly, to write to support in English.
Step 3: choose your account currency
This is the step where the Arabic 888 has a real advantage. Accounts can be held in AED, USD, EUR or GBP, and a dirham account means a UAE player's deposits and withdrawals are not converted at all. Withdrawal limits are quoted in dirhams too: a minimum of AED 100 (AED 800 by Inpay bank transfer) and up to AED 100,000 a month.
There is no QAR, KWD, BHD or OMR wallet. Players in Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain and Oman convert either way, so pick the currency your e-wallet already holds to avoid paying the spread twice.
Step 4: verify before your first deposit
The operator states identity checks take up to 24 hours. Spend that day now, while there is no balance waiting, rather than at your first withdrawal. Upload:
- Photo ID. Passport, national ID or Emirates ID, all four corners in frame, no glare.
- Proof of address. A utility bill, tenancy contract or bank statement from the last three months, matching the account name and address.
- Proof of payment method. A card photo with the middle eight digits and the CVV covered, or an e-wallet screenshot showing your name and wallet ID.
The withdrawal guide explains what happens after you are verified.
Step 5: a first deposit that lands
The cashier lists Visa and Mastercard, Apple Pay, Skrill, Neteller, MuchBetter, Inpay bank transfer and crypto icons. What works from the Gulf is narrower.
- E-wallets, in every Gulf state. Skrill, Neteller and MuchBetter are the dependable rail in and the fastest route back out. Confirm your wallet can be opened and funded from your country first, since Skrill and Neteller apply their own restrictions.
- Cards and Apple Pay, often declined. Gulf issuers routinely block gambling merchant codes, and Apple Pay rides on the card behind it, so the same block applies. Apple Pay also cannot receive a payout.
- Crypto, not confirmed. USDT appears on the site, but one independent listing says crypto is not supported here. Ask support in writing first, and remember legality differs: licensed in Bahrain and the UAE, tolerated in Oman, hostile in Qatar, prohibited in Kuwait.
Domestic rails such as KNET, BenefitPay, Thawani, QPay, Fawran and OmanNet never reach an offshore casino. Deposit with the method you intend to withdraw to, in your own name, and start with a modest amount.
Step 6: claim the welcome package
No code is needed. The package is 100% up to $1,000 on your first deposit, then 50% up to $1,000 on your second, and you opt in at the cashier before confirming each deposit. We read both figures on the operator's Arabic site. The 40x wagering comes from a third-party listing, because the operator's terms page was unreachable, and no minimum deposit is published, so confirm both in the cashier before you opt in.
At 40x, a $250 bonus means $10,000 of qualifying play, and live tables usually count for little or nothing. If you came for the Evolution and 888 Live tables, depositing without the bonus keeps your balance withdrawable. The bonus code page has the full arithmetic.
Before you sign up
The Arabic 888 is one of our two first recommendations for the region, on its AED accounts, lobby of 1,800+ games and high withdrawal ceiling. Its independent record is thin: no reachable Casino Guru, AskGamblers or Trustpilot listing, and a 2.7 out of 5 rating on LCB. Verify early, set a deposit limit first, and use our responsible gambling page if you need it.
