{"id":2673,"date":"2025-05-12T10:06:54","date_gmt":"2025-05-12T13:06:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/africa\/?p=2673"},"modified":"2026-04-19T17:06:47","modified_gmt":"2026-04-19T20:06:47","slug":"benue-state-targets-n700m-from-gambling-operations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/africa\/benue-state-targets-n700m-from-gambling-operations","title":{"rendered":"Benue State targets N700m from gambling operations"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Following the NLB’s dissolution, states now have full control over their lottery operations and regulations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Nigeria.- Benue State <\/strong>has the potential to generate up to N700 million<\/strong> (\u20ac386,548) annually from gambling operations, according to Michael Uper, executive secretary of the Benue Sports Marketing and Lottery Board<\/strong> (BSMLB).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Uper made the projection during the unveiling of Benue State’s official lottery logo in Makurdi<\/strong>. He pointed out the enormous opportunities in the gaming sector to boost Benue State’s revenue generation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Uper said: “Each gaming location is expected to remit a registration fee of N100,000<\/strong> (\u20ac55), which is renewable. There is a pressing need for Benue to explore this sector.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Uper further mentioned that the state’s lottery sector lacked organisation before his appointment, but with Governor Alia’s<\/strong> full support, the board is positioned to tap into its revenue potential.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Following the National Lottery Board’s dissolution, Uper added that states now have full control over their lottery operations and regulations. He said: ” With the federal government no longer in control of this sector, states are stepping up to harness the opportunities available in lottery administration.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The National Lottery Regulatory Commission<\/strong> (NLRC) was dissolved by a Supreme Court ruling<\/a> in November 2024.<\/strong> Before the ruling, the NLRC was the primary regulator of lottery and gambling activities in Nigeria. Since states had limited jurisdiction over gambling regulation at that time, there were no established state-level regulatory frameworks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With their success at the country’s highest court, state regulators are now taking charge of gaming oversight and looking to maximise the economic benefits.<\/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> Nigeria and South Africa lead the way for gambling revenue in Africa<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Following the NLB’s dissolution, states now have full control over their lottery operations and regulations.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2395,"featured_media":2678,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"is_press_release":false,"is_interview":false,"is_opinion":false,"focusai_summary":"Following the dissolution of Nigeria's National Lottery Board and a Supreme Court ruling granting states full regulatory control, Benue State projects an annual revenue of N700 million from its lottery operations. The Benue Sports Marketing and Lottery Board is actively establishing a state-level framework to capitalize on this shift in governance and maximize economic benefits from the gaming sector.","focusai_entities":"Michael Uper, Benue Sports Marketing and Lottery Board (BSMLB), National Lottery Board (NLB), National Lottery Regulatory Commission (NLRC), Governor Alia","focusai_location":"Nigeria, Benue State, Makurdi","focusai_target_profile":"ceo_executive (0.9), regulator (1.0), compliance_legal (0.9), operator_casino (0.85), affiliate_publisher (0.7), marketing_crm (0.7), payments_fraud_aml (0.7), investor_analyst (0.9), supplier_vendor (0.85), journalist_researcher (0.95)","focusai_suggestions":[{"label":"State Regulatory Harmonization","query":"What specific governance frameworks are Nigerian states, beyond Benue, developing to ensure regulatory harmonization and prevent jurisdictional arbitrage in the post-NLRC era?"},{"label":"Operator Market Entry","query":"How will the fragmented state-level licensing regime impact the operational scalability and market entry strategies for multi-state or international iGaming operators in Nigeria?"}],"footnotes":""},"categories":[60016,60012],"tags":[74],"class_list":["post-2673","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business-news","category-west-africa","tag-lottery"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2673","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=2673"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2673\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2725,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2673\/revisions\/2725"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2678"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2673"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2673"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2673"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}