Africa gaming operators to blacklist members flouting regulations

IBRAHIM QUADRI

Operators in the African gaming have resolved to blacklist and sanction members flouting the regulations guiding the practice.

The Chief Executive officer of the Lagos State Lotteries and Gaming Authority, Bashir Are made the disclosure during a press conference held in Victoria Island, Lagos to herald the 2026 Africa Gaming Expo, (AGE) designed with a cross-border collaboration for job creation across African economies.

The Expo to be hosted by the Governor of Lagos State, Mr. Babajide Sanwo-Olu, as a way of reinforcing the state’s position as Africa’s leading commercial, technology, and regulatory hub is  themed, “Africa’s Gaming Market: Frontier to Prominence.”

AGE is to further push gaming market to prominence and for job creation.

Other organizers who attended the briefing included, Charles Ekundayo CEO African Gaming Expo, Adenike Oyebamiji PRO/Chief Operating Officer, Africa Gaming Expo, Samuel Roland, Chief Operating Officer, LSLGA, Sheriff Olaniyan, Chairman Association of Nigeria Bookmakers (ANB) and Tamunopreye Tuadibofa Executive Secretary (ANB).

With the theme, “Africa’s Gaming Market: Frontier to Prominence,” the 3rd edition of Africa Gaming Expo (AGE), 2026 will take place between March 24 to 27, 2026.

The programme lined up include, opening cocktail, conference and exhibitions, award night and regulators’ roundtable.

AGE is endorsed by Gaming Regulators Africa Forum(GRAF), Internal Association of Gaming Regulators (IAGR), Association of Nigeria Bookmakers, Lagos State Government and Federation of State Gaming Regulators of Nigeria.

Speaking on the problem of underage gaming, Are said, ‘’To make sure that underage are not being allowed, we can minimize it, we may not be able to eliminate it in short time but we have like a mystery shopper that will go in there like a young child they don’t ask for your identity they are in trouble and the fines are very high.

‘’But the advantage of online is the fact that if you are online, you have to have a wallet system to fund your wallet in order to stake. So the KYC from the banking system already protects that aspect because if you don’t have your NIN, BVN is already in the banking system.

‘’So there are so many things that we are doing. It is not a lot, but we are going to continue to do more. We are going to amplify it.’’

On a larger scale he said, ‘’Now, to tie it to the African Gaming Expo now, on the continent, we also have partnerships with South Africa, Gambia, Ghana, Malta, United Kingdom, Jamaica, Brazil, because online is borderless. So we have what is called reciprocity enforcement.

‘’So we submit a report to each other, so you think this is how the operator is going out of line. So we have those kinds of partnerships on a global scale. We are going to increase it, but we have some of these.

‘’And for AGE, when the regulator comes from all over the world, that’s we have a regulatory forum where we discuss issues, problems in the industry.

‘’We normally reach the conclusion that this is where we will go. One of the things that we have concluded to implement moving forward is called an African blacklist, we can blacklist operators jointly on the continent. So injury to one is injury to all. So we have to protect the citizens because it’s a form of consumer protection.”