Punters pay the price: Zimra slaps 10% tax on sports betting winnings
Tax authority in Zimbabwe introduces withholding tax on sports betting winnings in 2025 budget.
Harare: Zimbabwean sports bettors are facing a major blow to their winning streaks as the Zimbabwe Revenue Authority (Zimra) rolls out a new 10 per cent withholding tax on gross sports betting winnings. No exceptions, no thresholds, and for now, no clear answers on how this will happen.
The hush-hush move was quietly slipped into the country’s 2025 National Budget and is part of an aggressive push by the government to rake in a projected ZiG270.3 billion (roughly US$ 7.5bn) in tax revenue for the year. That is a 17 per cent increase from last year’s collections, underlining Zimbabwe’s urgency to bolster its tax net in a tightening economic climate in Africa.
Punters will now see a tenth of their winnings vanish before they can even pocket any profits. This could have a ripple effect on bettors and could severely impact their decision to continue betting.
Other tax introductions
Finance and Investment Minister Professor Mthuli Ncube said a suite of revenue-enhancing measures will be put in place with the aim of expanding the country’s tax base. Alongside the betting tax, the government also introduced a 0.5 per cent tax on fast food sales and customs duties on select medical products.
Zimra in a statement confirmed the development. It said the target could be achieved with the implementation of policy interventions. Zimra said external factors such as global economic conditions and commodity price fluctuations could pose challenges. But it was confident that technological advancements, strategic reforms and ongoing institutional improvements would help them meet these 2025 targets.
Many unanswered questions
But with the announcement, many questions remain unanswered. There is currently no official word on how exactly the sports betting tax will be administered, whether it will be applied per transaction, per payout, or cumulatively over time. Nor is there clarity on whether thresholds or exemptions might be introduced to protect small-time punters from the same tax bite faced by high rollers.
Sportsbook operators in Zimbabwe have so far remained tight-lipped, and it’s unclear how the new measure will affect the gaming industry or bettor behaviour in the short term. What is certain is that for punters, betting in Zimbabwe just got a little more high-stakes, even before the first whistle blows.
As the dust settles, all eyes will be on how the industry copes and adapts, and whether this latest tax gamble will pay off for Treasury or come at the cost of a shrinking betting pool.
