{"id":20678,"date":"2026-03-19T08:52:31","date_gmt":"2026-03-19T11:52:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/africa\/?p=20678"},"modified":"2026-04-19T07:35:20","modified_gmt":"2026-04-19T10:35:20","slug":"drc-orders-gambling-operators-to-regularise-licences-by-march-31-as-government-focuses-on-1-6bn-sector","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/africa\/drc-orders-gambling-operators-to-regularise-licences-by-march-31-as-government-focuses-on-1-6bn-sector","title":{"rendered":"DRC orders gambling operators to regularise licences by March 31 as government focuses on $1.6bn sector"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Finance Ministry directive targets unlicensed operators as authorities seek to increase tax revenue and strengthen oversight of the gambling sector.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

DRC.- The government of the Democratic Republic of the Congo <\/strong>(DRC) has ordered gambling operators to regularise their licences<\/strong> by March 31, as authorities move to formalise the country\u2019s rapidly expanding betting sector<\/strong>, where activity exceeded $1.6bn in the last fiscal year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In an official notice dated March 5, the Ministry of Finance<\/strong> instructed companies operating sports betting, lotteries, casinos and prediction games to bring their activities into compliance<\/strong> by registering with the Directorate of Financial Regulation or provincial finance divisions to obtain an official operating permit<\/strong>, with unlicensed operators required to register to secure authorisation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Operators that fail to comply risk sanctions<\/strong> under existing legislation, including fines, tax adjustments, suspension of activities or forced closure, as well as potential criminal prosecution for unauthorised commercial activity <\/strong>or tax fraud.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Ministry also reminded operators of their obligations to pay the operating licence tax and ad valorem tax on player winnings<\/strong>, taxes now collected directly by the\u00a0Ministry of Finance\u00a0under Article 46 of the 10 December 2023 Finance Law for the 2024 fiscal year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The move comes as authorities seek to improve revenue collection<\/strong> from a rapidly expanding but largely informal gambling market.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Low tax contribution<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Finance Minister Doudou Fwamba <\/strong>said the sector\u2019s contribution to state revenues remains limited despite the scale of activity. \u201cThe sector\u2019s contribution to the public treasury<\/strong> remains relatively low,\u201d said Fwamba, according to Ecofin Agency.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Government estimates\u00a0show gambling activity in the country exceeded $1.6bn<\/strong> in the last fiscal year. The situation is partly attributed to the large number of\u00a0unregulated operators,<\/strong> according to government. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2022, authorities identified 139 illegal operators, according to figures previously presented during a cabinet meeting by former Finance Minister Nicolas Kazadi. Despite the scale of activity, tax receipts from the sector in 2023 reached only CDF1bn ($400 000), far below its\u00a0potential contribution\u00a0<\/strong>to public finances.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fwamba also acknowledged structural challenges in regulating the sector, saying the current framework remains outdated<\/strong>. \u201cThe sector already has a regulatory framework, but it is insufficiently modernised and inadequately digitised<\/strong>,\u201d added Fwamba.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A government diagnostic also identified a fragmented<\/strong> and poorly coordinated regulatory framework and weak oversight, conditions that authorities say can facilitate money laundering and other illicit financial activities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Officials are now preparing reforms aimed at tightening regulation and digitising oversight<\/strong> of the gambling industry, as part of efforts to formalise the sector and increase its contribution to the national treasury.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n\t\t\tSee also:<\/span><\/p>\n
\n\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\tSee also:<\/span> Angola ISJ engages municipal authorities on gambling integrity drive<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Finance Ministry directive targets unlicensed operators as authorities seek to increase tax revenue and strengthen oversight of the gambling sector.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2809,"featured_media":20572,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"is_press_release":false,"is_interview":false,"is_opinion":false,"focusai_summary":"The Democratic Republic of the Congo's Ministry of Finance has mandated all gambling operators to regularize their licenses by March 31st, 2024, to formalize the rapidly expanding sector and increase state tax revenue. Unlicensed entities face severe sanctions, including fines and potential criminal prosecution, as the government seeks to address an outdated regulatory framework and combat illicit financial activities within a market estimated at over $1.6 billion annually.","focusai_entities":"Ministry of Finance (DRC), Directorate of Financial Regulation, Doudou Fwamba, Ecofin Agency, Nicolas Kazadi","focusai_location":"Democratic Republic of the Congo","focusai_target_profile":"ceo_executive (0.95), regulator (1.0), compliance_legal (1.0), operator_casino (1.0), payments_fraud_aml (0.85), investor_analyst (0.9), supplier_vendor (0.8), journalist_researcher (0.9)","focusai_suggestions":[{"label":"Impact on GGR\/NGR?","query":"What is the projected impact of this formalization drive on the DRC's Gross Gaming Revenue (GGR) and Net Gaming Revenue (NGR) contribution to the national treasury in the next fiscal year, considering the current low tax contribution relative to market activity?"},{"label":"Regulatory Framework Modernization?","query":"Beyond the immediate licensing mandate, what specific legislative reforms and technological investments are planned to modernize and digitize the DRC's 'insufficiently modernised' and 'inadequately digitised' gambling regulatory framework, and what is the timeline for these changes?"}],"footnotes":""},"categories":[60014,60019],"tags":[2689,60907,60908],"class_list":["post-20678","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-central-africa","category-regulation-news","tag-gambling-regulation","tag-revenue-collection","tag-tax-contribution"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20678","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2809"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20678"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20678\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20718,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20678\/revisions\/20718"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20572"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20678"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20678"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20678"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}