Ethiopia strengthens betting oversight, acts on 38 firms
Authorities have taken action against 38 betting enterprises over alleged tax evasion, hidden revenue and illicit financial flows as part of a wider government effort.
Ethiopia.- Ethiopia has taken action involving 38 betting enterprises as part of a broader government effort to tackle corruption and illegality and protect its ongoing macroeconomic reforms.
The owners were taken into custody and the enterprises’ bank accounts were frozen, according to a press release from the Government Communication Service (GCS). The GCS said: “Actions were taken against 38 betting enterprises that concealed customer data to evade taxes, hide revenue, and conduct illicit financial flows.”
Ethiopia currently has no legally licensed sports-betting operators, according to the Ethiopian Lottery Service. The betting action formed part of a broader government operation targeting what authorities described as coordinated networks operating domestically and internationally across the business community, public enterprises, government structures and private individuals.
Government Communication Service Minister Enatalem Melese said: “These entities infiltrated the financial and commercial systems to commit severe economic sabotage aimed at destabilising the home-grown economic reform.” Melese’s remarks referred to the wider networks targeted in the operation.
Melese said the activities had contributed to foreign-exchange shortages, inflation, contraband trade and artificial shortages of essential consumer goods, adding that government and law-enforcement operations had worked to thwart the organised activities.
The wider measures included the sealing of over 7,000 businesses and warehouses involved in illegal activities, legal action against 169 Ethiopian and foreign nationals involved in illicit money transfers, hawala and black-market currency trading, and the blocking of seven cryptocurrency applications that the government said provided cover for illegal transactions.
The GCS did not identify the betting enterprises or disclose the value of the funds allegedly concealed or involved in the financial-flow cases. The action forms part of Ethiopia’s wider effort to tackle corruption and illegality while protecting its ongoing macroeconomic reform programme.
