.org Registrars Begin Blocking Registration of Gambling-Related Domains

Recently, .org registrars have started restricting the registration of gambling-related domains.

One domain registrar, Regery, which previously had no restrictions on the subject matter of registered .org domains, has as of yesterday begun refusing to register domains containing the word "casino" in their name, regardless of the language it is written in.

The registrar now classifies domains containing commercial gambling terminology — including "casino" and "roulette" — as high-risk and prohibits them in the .ORG zone regardless of whether a license is held. Regery also reserves the right to evaluate applications not only based on the stated intended use of the domain, but also based on patterns in its name and signs of potential abuse.

The likely driver behind these changes is the surge in bulk registration of gambling domains in the .ORG zone in recent months. For teams building large site networks, this adds another restriction at the domain registration stage itself.

For now, this is the policy of a single registrar rather than a blanket ban on gambling domains in the .ORG zone. However, the emergence of such restrictions signals that registering domains for gambling projects may gradually become more difficult.