A new report from Gaming Compliance International discloses that Africa’s online gambling market generated $23 billion in gross gaming revenue in 2025, up from $20 billion the previous year. Regulated markets continued to expand, but unlicensed operators still accounted for more than three-quarters of all gambling revenue across the continent.
The Online Gaming 2024–2025: Africa report found that legal casinos accumulated $5.2 billion in GGR, which accounts for 23% of the market. At the same time, unregulated platforms saw their revenue increase from $15.6 billion to $17.8 billion, keeping a hefty 77% of the market share.
Numbers from the report show that the market’s rapid growth is driven mainly by expanding mobile access, adoption of digital payments, and one of the world’s youngest populations, who are quite keen on online sports betting and casino gambling.
Regulated Market Expands, but Illegal Dominates
GCI Chief Executive Officer Matt Holt commented that the recent findings provide a clear picture of Africa’s online gambling landscape.
“For the first time, we can see the whole of Africa's online gambling market clearly. Nation by nation, across two full years, the picture is encouraging. The regulated sector is growing, and in several countries, it is starting to gain ground.”
He also said that the report should help regulators get a better idea of the full scale of the markets.
The report estimates that 215 million Africans, or around 14% of the continent’s total population, participated in online gambling during 2025, which was up from 198 million people, or 13%, a year earlier.
At the same time, exposure to licensed gambling operators increased slightly from 10% to 11%, while exposure to unregulated operators fell slightly from 90% to 89%.
Despite the improvement, the number of unregulated operators targeting African consumers grew from 3,644 in 2024 to 4,129 in 2025, which illustrates the continued expansion of the offshore market.
Southern Africa Leads in Regulated Revenue
Southern Africa is the continent’s largest online gambling market, with $10.3 billion in GGR in 2025. Of that, $2.9 billion was generated from regulated operators and $7.4 billion from the unregulated platforms.
West Africa recorded the strongest regulated market share with 31%, putting it ahead of Southern Africa at 28%. North Africa remained almost entirely unregulated, with licensed operators accounting for just 0.3% of total gaming revenue last year.
The report also compared Africa with other global regions, and discovered that its regulated market share of 23% was broadly in line with Europe and North America. However, the continent still falls well behind in overall regulatory maturity.
Some of Africa’s leading iGaming markets include Nigeria, Kenya, Ghana, Tanzania, Uganda, and Angola, which benefit from established licensing frameworks. These jurisdictions accounted for a significant portion of the continent’s $5.2 billion regulated casino GGR.
Meanwhile, South Africa is actively working on plans to legalise online casinos. The country’s market is currently limited to sports betting, but the government and National Gambling Board are advancing regulatory reforms aimed at bringing interactive casino gaming into the formal market, which could unlock substantial revenue.
Losing Billions in Potential Tax Revenue
According to GCI, governments across Africa lost an estimated $3.55 billion in potential tax revenue during 2025 as gambling activity mostly occurred outside of the regulated markets.
The report argues that these lost revenues could have been utilised to support healthcare, education, infrastructure and digital transformation while strengthening consumer protections.
GCI adds that instead of assessing regulatory success by the number of issued licenses, regulators should consider aspects such as whether local consumers choose to play with regulated casino operators.
Regulation Should Foster Compliance
In the report, GCI also argues that taxation should encourage compliance and investment rather than simply maximise the revenue for governments. It warns that excessive tax rates can reduce the competitiveness of licensed operators and drive both consumers and businesses toward the unregulated sector.
Besides taxation, GCI says effective regulation must also address the broader digital ecosystem, including search engines, affiliates, streaming platforms, app stores, payment providers, and social media. In its opinion, these channels can increasingly influence where consumers gamble.
The report recommends regulators adopt its Monitor, Police, Enforce, Optimise framework, insisting that marketplace optimisation is just as crucial as enforcement in increasing channelisation and consumer protection.
Opportunity Outweighs the Challenge
Despite the continued dominance of unregulated gaming, GCI said the legal sector’s $800 million year-on-year growth is evidence that regulation is beginning to shift market outcomes in several African jurisdictions through clearer licensing frameworks, stronger regulatory coordination and improved policy design.
GCI President Ismail Vali said Africa's online gambling sector should be viewed primarily as an economic opportunity.
“Marketplace outcomes are the ultimate measure of regulatory success. The objective is not simply to regulate licensed operators to optimise the entire online gambling marketplace so that consumers choose to enter, remain within, and benefit from the regulated sector,” shared Vali.
What’s Next
According to GCI, Africa already has the tools, the digital infrastructure, growing regulatory capabilities and consumer demand needed to support a thriving regulated iGaming market.
The report concludes that the next stage of development will depend on how effectively governments, regulators and industry stakeholders work together to bring a larger share of the continent's estimated $23 billion online gaming economy into transparent, competitive and well-regulated market models.
