Namibia holds workshops on gambling reform as regulator staffing lags

Regional sessions have been convened in Namibia to validate draft changes to the country's Lotteries Regulations and its Gambling and Gambling Activities Regulations. Those sessions follow a consultation window that ran during March and April. The workshops took place in October under the auspices of the Ministry of Environment, Forestry and Tourism, and input gathered in the regions is set to be brought together in Windhoek ahead of the next step in gazetting.

Indileni Daniel, the environment, forestry and tourism minister, informed parliament that the Gambling Board of Namibia, the body tasked with carrying out the reforms, has not yet reached full operation. Recruitment of its staff is still outstanding, she said. According to Daniel, the shortage of people is holding back work on consumer education and on rehabilitation programmes. Namibian Sun reporting indicates that the same staffing problems have hampered oversight of gambling houses and online platforms, as well as the gathering of fees and levies.

As NBC reported from the Keetmanshoop validation workshop, the draft changes would create fresh fees on operators to fund tighter supervision via a central electronic monitoring system. A remote, real-time version of that system is already being procured by the GBN, in line with section 90 of the Gaming and Entertainment Control Act 2018. Its purpose is to log and report gambling transactions and activity at licensed operations, and an automated licensing platform forms part of the same procurement. Both tenders now close on 5 November, a later date than originally set.

A 15 October 2026 consultation workshop aimed at bookmaker and totalisator licence applicants was announced by the GBN in a separate public notice. It will address licensing requirements and technical compliance for the betting and wagering platforms applicants intend to run. NBC's account of the earlier consultation notes that the proposals also cover revised licensing and registration arrangements, among them an electronic software lottery licence meant to oversee digital and online gaming platforms.

According to GBN acting chief executive Johannes Erastus, research and benchmarking shaped the proposed structure. He told NBC: "Our laws, specifically the Act, require the boards to align with international best practices and to engage with regional and international colleagues and jurisdictions to inform and assist us in shaping the Namibian gambling space." At the Keetmanshoop workshop, GBN chairperson Ben Shikongo remarked: "We don’t just need to always do informal business. We need to be licensed so that we can have a genuine business." In a later NBC report, Shikongo urged the government to "expedite the process of gazetting the fees, particularly those that were previously high".

The 2021 rules impose a 10% levy on net monthly income for holders of casino, gambling house, bar gambling and shebeen gambling licences, with shebeens described as small drinking establishments. Net income in those categories is calculated as gambling income minus winnings paid out, with food, alcohol and other non-gambling sales left out. A different levy applies to totalisator licence holders: 10% of gross monthly takings.

Daniel described effective oversight, online gambling in particular, as a difficulty faced worldwide at present, not only in Namibia. She added that her ministry was not processing any applications for activity the current Act prohibits. This matters because the Gaming and Entertainment Control Act treats online games as distinct from bets made through communication technology with bookmakers or totalisators. Daniel said in February that poor oversight was depriving Namibia of revenue and leaving citizens exposed to social harm linked to gambling, the Namibia Press Agency reported. Seimy Shidute, MEFT deputy executive director, said the changes were required to "adapt to the global developments, such as the digital innovation and emerging technological trends".

A NAD5 million annual target for gambling income levies appears in the Ministry of Finance's 2023/24 accountability report, which shows nothing collected against it. Separately, Daniel told parliament that the Gambling Trust Fund had so far received NAD17 million, NBC reported.

In March, The Brief carried news that the Namibia Revenue Agency and the GBN had entered a cooperation agreement giving the agency access to data on gambling operators and winnings. Revenue commissioner Sam Shivute told The Brief: "We are going to receive data on all players in the industry and compare it with our tax records. Where there is non-compliance, we will raise assessments to ensure the correct taxes are paid."

According to Shikongo, the input gathered at the regional workshops will be brought together in Windhoek before the proposals advance to the following stage. Which legal path is taken hinges on the measures finally adopted: regulations would need to be gazetted, whereas changing primary legislation would call for the relevant parliamentary procedure. How any new fees are applied and how they sit alongside existing levies will be settled by the final text. Whether the GBN can close its staffing gaps and develop the capacity to enforce the new framework will also shape implementation.