{"id":21616,"date":"2026-03-27T20:10:03","date_gmt":"2026-03-27T23:10:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/africa\/?p=21616"},"modified":"2026-04-19T07:12:35","modified_gmt":"2026-04-19T10:12:35","slug":"lagos-state-gaming-regulator-boss-warns-over-regulation-could-fuel-black-market-growth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/africa\/lagos-state-gaming-regulator-boss-warns-over-regulation-could-fuel-black-market-growth","title":{"rendered":"Lagos state gaming regulator boss warns over-regulation could fuel black market growth"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Bashir Are, CEO of the Lagos State Lotteries and Gaming Authority, <\/strong>warned that regulatory environments must not be overly restrictive to avoid pushing activity underground.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Nigeria.- Bashir Are<\/strong>, the CEO of the Lagos State Lotteries and Gaming Authority (LSLGA), has called for a careful balance in regulatory frameworks to prevent operators from being driven into the black market. Are made the remarks while speaking during a panel session at the Africa Gaming Expo (AGE) 2026<\/strong> in Lagos<\/strong> on March<\/strong> 26<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The panel, sponsored by Policy Vault Africa<\/strong>, examined the challenges posed by unlicensed gambling operators across African markets. It was moderated by Damilola Atiri<\/strong>, Country Manager and Principal of the Gaming Practice at Policy Vault.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Are acknowledged the difficulties illegal operators pose for regulators and licensed businesses but warned that regulatory environments must not be overly restrictive to avoid pushing activity underground.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Other panelists included Adewale Akande<\/strong>, Head of Legal and Compliance at KC Gaming Networks Ltd, Moruntshi Kemorwale<\/strong>, Acting CEO of the Gambling Authority of Botswana, Peter Emolemo Kesitilwe<\/strong>, CEO of the African iGaming Alliance and Paulo Claudio<\/strong> Daniel Mario<\/strong>, Deputy Director General of the Instituto de Supervis\u00e3o de Jogos in Angola.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kemorwale shared findings from research conducted with the University of Botswana. He said the illegal gambling market in Botswana is twice the size of the regulated market and shows higher rates of problem gambling. The unregulated sector is valued at around P500m (about \u20ac34m).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kesitilwe identified three main reasons why unlicensed operators continue to operate, including advances in technology, regulatory differences between countries and the financial incentives available outside the licensed system.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Echoing Are\u2019s views, Daniel Mario called for a balanced approach, saying regulations must be strong enough to reduce risks such as addiction and financial harm to players while ensuring that licensing costs and requirements do not create barriers that push companies into the unregulated space.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The session ended with a call for regulators and industry players to establish a common blacklist of unlicensed operators as a practical first step.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Africa Gaming Expo 2026 was held from March 24 to 27<\/strong> at the Eko Convention Centre<\/strong> in Lagos. The event convened regulators, operators and other stakeholders to discuss regulation, compliance and growth in Africa\u2019s gaming sector.<\/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> African gaming regulators to establish joint blacklist for non-compliant operators<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Bashir Are, CEO of the Lagos State Lotteries and Gaming Authority, warned that regulatory environments must not be overly restrictive to avoid pushing activity underground.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2395,"featured_media":4530,"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 Lagos State Lotteries and Gaming Authority CEO, Bashir Are, emphasized the critical need for balanced regulatory frameworks in African iGaming markets to prevent licensed operators from being driven into the black market. Discussions at the Africa Gaming Expo 2026 highlighted the significant scale of the unregulated sector, particularly in Botswana, and proposed a joint blacklist of unlicensed operators as a practical first step for regional regulators.","focusai_entities":"Bashir Are, Lagos State Lotteries and Gaming Authority, LSLGA, Policy Vault Africa, Damilola Atiri, Adewale Akande, KC Gaming Networks Ltd, Moruntshi Kemorwale, Gambling Authority of Botswana, Peter Emolemo Kesitilwe, African iGaming Alliance, Paulo Claudio Daniel Mario, Instituto de Supervis\u00e3o de Jogos, University of Botswana, Africa Gaming Expo","focusai_location":"Nigeria, Lagos, Botswana, Angola, Africa","focusai_target_profile":"ceo_executive (0.9), regulator (1.0), compliance_legal (0.9), operator_casino (0.9), payments_fraud_aml (0.8), investor_analyst (0.9), supplier_vendor (0.8), journalist_researcher (1.0)","focusai_suggestions":[{"label":"Regional Blacklist Efficacy","query":"What specific governance frameworks and enforcement mechanisms will be established to ensure the efficacy and cross-border adoption of a joint blacklist for unlicensed operators across African jurisdictions?"},{"label":"Economic Impact Analysis","query":"Beyond problem gambling, what are the estimated economic impacts, including tax revenue loss and market distortion, attributable to the P500m unregulated gambling market in Botswana, and how does this scale across other African nations?"}],"footnotes":""},"categories":[60019,60012],"tags":[1077,73,60033],"class_list":["post-21616","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-regulation-news","category-west-africa","tag-age","tag-illegal-gambling","tag-regulation"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21616","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\/2395"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21616"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21616\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21691,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21616\/revisions\/21691"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4530"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21616"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21616"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21616"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}