🌍 African Online Casinos

The legality of gambling practices, both land-based and at online platforms is considered a rather complicated aspect of any country’s regulative. When it comes to the second largest continent on Earth – Africa, and its numerous countries, the situation does not get any clearer. Namely, with each government deciding what’s best for their citizens on its own, the African legal landscape is rather diverse.

Nevertheless, due to the specific geographic location of certain countries and their proximity to different influences in of economic, trade, cultural and even religious manners, the African continent has come to distinguish between several different geographic segments. These include Central African region.

As you will see soon enough, each of these regions and their respective constituent countries may have their own laws and regulations regarding gambling practices. Some are fully ive of the practice, while a small portion of the countries is still only vaguely interested, and yet a third group of countries completely ban real money wagers on any games of luck or chance, regardless of their format. South Africa arguably leads the way in promoting the benefits and legality of said industry, followed by Kenya and Nigeria, ing their governments’ claims with actual gambling establishments.

Gambling Legislation in North Africa

Northern Africa is by-and-large a desert mainland, spreading across the Sahara desert. Across the Mediterranean, it has been influenced by European culture, but the immediate proximity to the Middle East has resulted in the Islamic religion dominating among the population. With their stringent beliefs, much of the Northern region of Africa has remained a greatly unexploited gambling market, both land-based and online.

While Libya, Algeria, Egypt and Tunisia follow the aforementioned mode, Morocco have diverted in this practice, offering a land-based casino establishment since 1952. With official legislation in 2002, Morocco has become the most progressive country in the region. While the casinos are mainly used as tourist attractions, they are still the grassroots of a wider and greatly potential industry.

Gambling Legislation in Central Africa

Central Africa is comprised of seven countries – Cameroon, Chad, Congo, Central African Republic, Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda/Burundi and Gabon. The first six are greatly opposed to the whole practice of gambling on their territory, due to the fact that most are targets to terrorist and illegal organizations, military actions and complete governmental chaos.

In spite of that, the last country Gabon has largely adopted the practice of gambling and used its potential to prosper even further. There are said to be six casinos in the country, with five in the capital and one outside its borders, all of which are legally regulated by the Réglementation Générale des Jeux de Hazard from 2005, translated from French into the “General Regulation on Games of Chance“.

Gambling Legislation in West Africa

Along the coast of the Atlantic Ocean, West African countries have clustered to form a rather fixed set of opinions regarding gambling practices. Namely, the greater part of the constituent countries either fully oppose the industry, while some do have specific forms of gambling on their territory which are strictly forbidden for the local inhabitants. Residents of Benin, Ghana, Senegal, Sierra Leone and Togo, each in their own specific way, have managed to legalize gambling practices on their territory and currently allow their citizens to enjoy this form of entertainment.

The Benin government have achieved this back in 2001 using Law No. 2002 28 for Regulating Games of Chance, Money and Gambling in the Republic of Benin, roughly translated from French. Ghana has started the practice of preparing legislation earlier on, as they have developed regulative on sports betting, lottery and casino gambling in the second half of the last century. With the Gaming Act 721 of 2006, numerous gambling opportunities have become available for Ghana visitors. Senegal, Sierra Leone and Togo each have their separate acts regulating the area, and correspondingly offer a various range of such services.

Gambling Legislation in East Africa

The East of Africa is much like the North, maybe even more so due to the fact that there is no more than 200 miles between the coasts of this continent and the Middle East countries such as Yemen. This region of the African continent consists of the pro-gambling oriented governments of Djibouti, Tanzania and Uganda, and the contra-gambling positioned countries of Somalia, Sudan, Eritrea and Ethiopia.

Kenya is the last country that’s part of Eastern Africa, and at the same time the home to the second largest casino count. While it does have proper legal regulations addressing the matter of gambling practices, both land-based and online, obstacles to enjoying such services on its territory mainly refer to the extremist groups and organizations performing terrorist attacks on such establishments which clash with their unique beliefs.

The country of Djibouti s brick-and-mortar casinos to the benefit of their economy, but has yet to introduce lottery, bingo and sports betting on its territory. Tanzania is much more advanced in such , as it has started addressing legal regulation matters since 1967, with the Pools and Lotteries Act.

Moving forward, the National Investments Promotions and Protection Act of 1992 referred to the actual establishment of said casinos and gambling sites, While in 2003, players were provided a firm definition of the taxation policy applicable to the industry, as well as the Gaming Board of Tanzania – a dedicated authoritative body to ensure operators’ compliance with all regulations.

Ultimately, Uganda is much in the grey, although there is legal regulative directing the relations between players, and online and land-based gambling sites. Currently, players in Uganda can access and wager at any of the numerous casino or sports betting establishments.

Gambling Legislation in Southern Africa

Angola, Mozambique and Zimbabwe are the three least recommendable gambling destinations for anyone visiting the southern region of the African continent. Zambia, Botswana, Namibia, Swaziland and Malawi have all made progress in this aspect, providing their residents and visitors with gambling services as led by the example of the leading African country by casino count – South Africa.

Namely, South Africa has employed a range of regulative since 1996 – The Gambling Act which aimed to set clear-cut taxes, regulations, authorizations and licensing procedures. While the country’s gambling industry managed to function and prosper rather well under the said Act, change was needed to meet the needs of a growing economy. In 2004, the government of South Africa ed another Gambling Act, and in 2008, they ultimately ed the National Gambling Amendment Act, currently providing South African residents to gamble in casino establishments of all kinds, and even online gambling by promoting the legal use of sports betting operators.

Each of the countries listed as pro-gambling oriented in their policies have more or less been influenced by the industry leader’s line of work. With Zambia being the most widely recommended tourist destination across the region and the continent in general, it is only expected that it should offer a range of attractive casino hotels and resorts, with the rest not too far behind.

Banking Methods for African Online Casino Sites

As indicated in the extensive preview offered above, gambling enthusiasts in Africa need to be rather careful with their exploits. Some countries apparently promote even modern online casino and gambling platforms, while others deal with militant attacks and cannot stabilize the economy enough to regulate this form of entertainment on their territory.

Anyway, there are a number of offshore online casino operators with headquarters far from the African mainland which provide diverse and trustworthy gambling services. A major factor in this regard is the payment processing offered at said platforms – their functionality, availability to African players, fees, and the overall security provided by the payment processors and casinos alike all contribute to the final product image.

Considering that online casinos catering to the African player pool are no different than others in their basis, the common standards of security and accessibility apply to them as well. Still, a key consideration is the currency – the African-dedicated banking methods should include the ZAR. This is the currency of South Africa, which is the country that has legally regulated the matter of online gambling platforms and intends to expand the selfsame industry. As a result, players are invited to stick to online casino platforms that offer the following banking methods:

• Debit and Credit Cards: This payment method covers card processing companies MasterCard. Each of these companies has a long-standing reputation in the global online gambling, and e-commerce industry in general, so there is no denying their quality of service. Still, players should make sure that they are dealing with a reliable casino operator prior to trusting their servers with private banking details.
• E-wallets: The security concern presented above is much eliminated with the use of top popular e-wallet services Neteller. They function as online bank s funded by your actual bank , as a mediator or even insulator between your private information and the casino platform. Online casinos tend to promote this banking method among African players, as it increases security and reduced risk of errors.
• Online Payment Processing Services: African payment processors can also be included in the list of options, and thus offer lowest fees for payment processing. This is the case with EasyEFT, a service that functions across all devices and allows platforms to set up a direct channel between the two online platforms for greater speed and security.
• Wire Transfer: Wire transfers directly through your bank or via money transfer services such as MoneyGram and Western Union are also available banking methods on African-oriented casino sites. They may charge slightly higher fees than the rest, and are thus less attractive to the wide player pool, but they offer high levels of reliability and security which makes it all worthwhile.

Conclusion

All in all, the legality of gambling practices on the African continent is as diverse as its natural wildlife and riches. Brick-and-mortar and online gambling establishments are under various policies and regulations depending on the country and relevant region, which is ultimately reflected in their economic health and stability. Still, the efforts made by largely progressive African countries leading the continent into the online gambling era are bound to affect the rest, and step by step, change the entire legislative framework of Africa.