Short answer
Playing for chips or app coins with no real value is not gambling in the legal sense, since no one wins anyone's money. But the Hanafi school forbids games of chance like poker, dice games and slot-style apps even without stakes, and once real money buys the chips or the coins can be cashed out, it is gambling.
Without anything of value at stake there is no qimar. Games of chance such as nard (backgammon) and what is like it, including card games of chance, are still makruh tahrimi (impermissible) in the Hanafi school even when played for nothing. Social casino apps where coins are bought with real money or redeemed for prizes are gambling.
The four schools agree on this.
Explanation
Gambling in fiqh needs property at risk: each player puts up something of value and the winner takes it. Poker with plastic chips that nobody paid for, or a casino game in a free app, does not meet that definition. But two other rules still apply.
First, the game itself. The Prophet ﷺ said that whoever plays nardashir (backgammon) is like someone who dips his hand in pig's flesh and blood, and he said nothing about money. The four schools agree that nard is forbidden even without a stake. Hanafi jurists treat games that turn mainly on chance, such as poker, blackjack, roulette and slot simulations, in the same way. Chess, which turns on skill, has its own discussion: see Is chess haram?
Second, where the money comes in. Many "free" casino apps are not free:
- If you buy chips or coins with real money and can lose them on a spin or a hand, you are risking property. That is gambling.
- If coins can be cashed out or redeemed for prizes, as in sweepstakes casinos, it is gambling.
- Paid random rewards, such as loot boxes, are treated by many scholars as close to gambling and best avoided.
The Quran says Satan wants to use gambling to stir up hostility and to turn you away from remembering Allah and from prayer (5:91). Casino-style games, even for fake money, are built to train exactly that habit, which is why the scholars discourage them. Light family games where dice only move pieces are a separate and milder question; see Are video games haram?
The evidence
Quran, Surah Al-Maaida 5:91
إِنَّمَا يُرِيدُ ٱلشَّيْطَٰنُ أَن يُوقِعَ بَيْنَكُمُ ٱلْعَدَٰوَةَ وَٱلْبَغْضَآءَ فِى ٱلْخَمْرِ وَٱلْمَيْسِرِ وَيَصُدَّكُمْ عَن ذِكْرِ ٱللَّهِ وَعَنِ ٱلصَّلَوٰةِ ۖ فَهَلْ أَنتُم مُّنتَهُونَ ﴿٩١﴾
Satan only wants to cause between you animosity and hatred through intoxicants and gambling and to avert you from the remembrance of Allah and from prayer. So will you not desist?
Gambling is forbidden partly because it diverts people from Allah and prayer.
Sahih Muslim 2260
Sahih... من لعب بالنردشير فكأنما صبغ يده في لحم خنزير ...
"Whoever plays nardashir is like one who dips his hand in the flesh and blood of a pig."
A game of chance is condemned in itself, with no mention of a stake.
Where the ruling is recorded
- al-Hidaya, Kitab al-Karahiya, miscellaneous issues. Playing nard and similar games is disliked to the level of prohibition.
- al-Durr al-Mukhtar with Radd al-Muhtar, Kitab al-Hazr wa al-Ibaha, section on sale (fasl fi al-bay'). Games of nard and those like it are makruh tahrimi, with or without money.
Checked by our team. For a more accurate answer to your own situation, consult a scholar. Quran translation by Sahih International. Hadith Arabic from the standard editions of the six books and the Muwatta, with gradings as recorded there; the English is our own rendering. Spotted a mistake? Tell us.