Is online gambling legal in Botswana?

Legal overview

Botswana regulates gambling under the Gambling Act, 2012 (Act No. 7 of 2012), administered by the Gambling Authority. The Authority must license every gambling activity, and section 33 makes unlicensed gambling illegal, including informal card and dice games played for money. Land-based gambling includes casinos, bingo and betting. The first bookmaker and totalisator licences were issued in January 2024, and in September 2024 the Authority granted ten betting licences and six limited payout machine licences. Under the current law, no one under 21 may take part in any form of gambling.

Online sports betting was brought into the licensed market in early 2025. Locally licensed betting sites went live in March 2025. Over the previous year the Authority had sent cease-and-desist notices to offshore bookmakers, and some foreign brands withdrew from the market. In October 2026 the Authority reported that active users of illegal betting sites had fallen from more than 500,000 to about 40,000, against 1.5 million accounts on licensed platforms.

Online casino games have no licence yet. Trade press reports that the government plans to add online casino licences, but none had been issued when this page was checked, so offshore casino sites fall under the general ban on unlicensed gambling. The Gambling (Amendment) Bill, 2026 (Bill No. 15 of 2026) passed its third reading in the National Assembly on 13 August 2026. It would lower the minimum age from 21 to 18, tighten fit-and-proper and beneficial-ownership checks, require gambling machines to connect to a central monitoring system, and register amusement arcades. It takes effect only after presidential assent and a commencement order in the Gazette.