Ghana court orders MSport to refund betting losses over KYC failure
The court found that the operator should have carried out additional verification before allowing the account to be used for betting.
Ghana.– A Ghana High Court has ordered MSport Ghana to refund GH¢364,847 (US$ 31.4k) to Gafat Consult Ltd after ruling that the betting operator failed to carry out proper customer verification checks on its platform. The case centred on whether the company should have detected that a corporate mobile money account was being used for betting activity.
According to court findings, Benjamin Boateng, an employee of Gafat Consult Ltd, used a corporate mobile money account belonging to the company to place bets without authorisation. Gafat later filed a complaint with the Gaming Commission of Ghana and pursued legal action after attempts to recover the funds failed.
Boateng used the company’s MTN merchant mobile money account to place bets totalling GH¢364,847 (US$ 31.4k) between 2022 and the time the transactions were discovered. The court held that the betting operator should have identified the account as a corporate line during its Know Your Customer (KYC) verification process.
Justice Ayitey Armah-Tetteh, who delivered the judgment on March 19, said the operator failed to carry out additional checks required under Ghana’s gaming regulations. The ruling stated that proper verification would likely have shown that Boateng was neither a director nor a secretary of Gafat Consult Ltd and therefore should not have been allowed to register the company’s number for betting activities.
The court ordered MSport to refund the full amount, pay interest from August 2022 until final settlement, and cover legal costs of GH¢40,000 (€2,660).
The case has drawn attention in Ghana’s gambling sector as it places greater responsibility on betting operators to detect misuse of corporate accounts and merchant wallets. Legal analysts in Ghana described the ruling as a significant interpretation of KYC obligations for online betting companies operating in the country.
The judgment could lead to increased scrutiny of how betting firms verify customer accounts, particularly as mobile money continues to dominate digital payments in Ghana’s gambling market. Industry observers say operators may now face pressure to strengthen controls around corporate numbers and merchant accounts to avoid similar liability in future disputes.
