Legal casino gambling age in GhanaGhana regulates gambling through two parallel statutes passed in December 2006. The Gaming Act, 2006 (Act 721) created the Gaming Commission of Ghana, which licenses casinos, sports betting, gaming machines and other games of chance. The National Lotto Act, 2006 (Act 722) gave lotteries to a separate body, the National Lottery Authority (NLA). Ghana is a licensing jurisdiction: any qualifying limited liability company may apply for a gaming licence, and there is no state monopoly outside the national lottery. The Gaming Act does not mention the internet, but the Commission issues licences for online sports betting, online casinos and remote interactive games, and most betting in the country now takes place on mobile phones.
Key points
- The Gaming Act, 2006 (Act 721) established the Gaming Commission. Section 13 provides that a person shall not operate a game of chance unless it is a limited liability company licensed to operate that specified game. The Act does not apply to the National Lotto.
- The Commission’s published licence requirements list separate fees for online sports betting, online casino and remote interactive game licences, alongside land-based categories. Applicants must be partly or wholly Ghanaian owned and meet minimum capital requirements of USD 1.5 million to USD 2.5 million, depending on category.
- The National Lotto Act, 2006 (Act 722) provides that no person other than the NLA may operate any form of lottery. Private lotto operators work under NLA licence and regulation.
- A 10% withholding tax on gross winnings from betting, gaming and lottery applied from 15 August 2023. It was abolished by the Income Tax (Amendment) Act, 2025 (Act 1129), signed on 2 April 2025. The 20% tax on operators’ gross gaming revenue (GGR) remains.
- The Gaming Commission’s advertising guidelines ban celebrities in gambling advertisements, require warnings such as “Gambling is addictive” and bar outdoor advertising within 200 metres of schools. The Commission reported 68 self-exclusion requests in 2024 and 31 in the first quarter of 2025.
Last reviewed: 6 October 2026.
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Historical development
Organised lottery in Ghana predates independence-era gaming law. According to the Wikipedia entry on the National Lottery Authority, used here as a pointer, a Department of National Lotteries was set up under the Lotteries Act of 1958 during the Nkrumah administration and later brought under the Lotteries and Betting Act, 1960 (Act 31). For the next four decades betting, football pools, gaming machines and casinos were governed by a series of separate laws. Section 73 of the Gaming Act, 2006 lists the enactments it repealed: the Lotteries and Betting Act, 1960 (Act 31), the Football Pools Authority Act, 1961 (Act 78), the Gambling Machines Decree, 1973 (NRCD 174) and the Casino Licensing Decree, 1975 (NRCD 320).
The Gaming Act’s long title describes it as an Act “to revise and consolidate the laws relating to casinos and other gaming activities other than lottery”. A few days later Parliament passed the National Lotto Act, assented to on 27 December 2006, which turned the lottery department into the National Lottery Authority. The Gaming Act received assent on 22 December 2006.
The 2006 Acts predate the spread of smartphones and mobile money. The market has since moved largely online, but the statutes have not been amended, so the regulation of online products has developed through the Commission’s licensing practice and guidelines.
Legal framework
The Gaming Act, 2006 (Act 721)
The Gaming Act is divided into parts on gaming and betting, gambling machines and casinos, followed by general offences and administrative provisions. The provisions most relevant to this guide are:
- Section 1 states that the Act “does not apply to National Lotto”.
- Section 3 sets the Commission’s object: “to regulate, control, monitor and supervise the operation of games of chance in the country”. Its functions include licensing operators and receiving complaints from companies and the public.
- Section 13 provides that a person shall not operate a game of chance unless that person is “a limited liability company” and is “licensed by the Board to operate a specified game of chance”.
- Section 16 sets the licence fee at two per cent of the company’s minimum stated capital.
- Sections 22 and 23 require licensees to maintain a minimum paid-up capital and a bankroll, in cash or equivalents, to protect patrons against non-payment. Section 24 allows a penalty of up to the cedi equivalent of USD 20,000 or licence revocation for breaches of the bankroll rules.
- Section 48 prohibits a person responsible for a gambling machine from permitting a child to use it, and section 58 bars children, members of the judiciary, the Armed Forces and the Public Service, including the Police Service, from casino membership.
- Section 63 makes it an offence to operate a game of chance at a club which is not a casino without a valid licence, punishable by a fine of not less than 1,000 penalty units, imprisonment of not less than three years, or both.
- Section 72 defines gaming as playing a game “whether of skill or chance or partly of skill and partly of chance for stakes hazarded by the players”, excluding lotto.
A penalty unit is a fixed sum used to express statutory fines. The Act contains no reference to the internet, remote gambling or online casinos, and no provisions on advertising.
The National Lotto Act, 2006 (Act 722)
The National Lotto Act establishes National Lotto, whose purpose is to raise revenue for the state, and the National Lottery Authority to regulate, supervise, conduct and manage it. Section 4 provides that “a person other than the Authority shall not operate any form of lottery”, with a fine of up to 2,500 penalty units, imprisonment of up to three years, or both. The Act licenses lotto marketing companies, which must be citizen-owned, to distribute lottery products. Section 20 provides that “only a person of eighteen years and above and of sound mind may participate in National Lotto”. The Lottery Regulations, 2008 (L.I. 1948) supplement the Act. According to a summary by a former NLA spokesman published by Citi Newsroom (October 2025), regulation 12 of L.I. 1948 allows the NLA’s Board to authorise the Director-General to select, operate and contract for the operation of online lottery.
Other relevant legislation
Gambling taxation is set by the Income Tax Act, 2015 (Act 896), as amended in 2023 and 2025 (see Taxation below). The Anti-Money Laundering Act, 2020 (Act 1044) applies to gaming operators, and the Fees and Charges (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act, 2022 (Act 1080) and its regulations (L.I. 2481) now govern regulatory fees and administrative penalties, according to the Chambers Gaming Law 2025 guide for Ghana by Legalstone Solicitors.
Regulator and licensing model
The Gaming Commission of Ghana is a body corporate under the Ministry of the Interior. It is governed by a board that includes representatives of the Ministry of Finance, the Police Service, the Ministry of the Interior and the revenue agencies. Its chief executive, the Games Commissioner, is appointed by the President under section 65 of the Act. By late January 2025 Emmanuel Siisi Quainoo was serving as acting Games Commissioner (Gaming Commission). Ghana follows a licensing model: there is no monopoly, and any qualifying company may apply. The NLA, by contrast, holds a statutory monopoly over lottery.
Licence categories and fees
The Commission’s requirements for a gaming licence (2025 edition, published on its website in 2026) set fees in US dollars. The main categories are:
| Licence | Licence fee (USD) | Renewal (USD) | Annual operations (USD) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Online sports betting (partly Ghanaian owned) | 300,000 | 50,000 | 50,000 |
| Online sports betting (wholly Ghanaian owned) | 100,000 | 50,000 | 50,000 |
| Online casino | 50,000 | 25,000 | 50,000 |
| Remote interactive games | 50,000 | 25,000 | 15,000 |
| Land-based sports betting | 40,000 | 25,000 | 50,000 |
| Casino | 50,000 | 25,000 | 50,000 |
Minimum stated capital is USD 2.5 million for casinos, USD 2 million for sports betting and USD 1.5 million for route operations, meaning networks of gaming machines placed in third-party venues. Applicants need an identifiable office, tax clearance and an ownership structure that is “partly or wholly Ghanaian owned”. Directors are vetted by the Bureau of National Investigations and the police, with INTERPOL checks for foreign nationals. Online applicants must also provide software certification and details of their technical platform.
According to the Chambers guide, licences are issued for twelve months. Section 19 of the Act forbids transferring a licence. The Chambers guide notes that Ghanaian law draws no distinction between business-to-business (B2B) suppliers and business-to-consumer (B2C) operators, so there is no separate supplier licence.
Number of licensees
The Commission publishes a register of licensed operators, which at the time of review listed licences valid for the 2026 calendar year in categories including sports betting, online sports betting, online casino, casino, remote interactive games, route operations, bingo and scratch cards. In February 2025 the Ghana News Agency reported the Acting Commissioner as saying that the Commission supervised 26 land-based casinos, 14 online casinos, 27 sports betting operators, 4 route operators, 7 remote interactive game operators and 2 scratch card businesses (GNA).
Lotteries
Lottery is regulated separately by the NLA under Act 722. Private lotto operators (PLOs) operate under NLA licence and regulation. On 30 August 2024 the NLA licensed fifteen private lotto operators under Act 722, L.I. 1948 and the Veterans Administration Ghana Act, 2012 (Act 844), as reported by the Daily Graphic. Section 35(2) of Act 722 bars the Authority itself from retailing lotto coupons to stakers, according to the 2025 Citi Newsroom summary.
Online gambling: what is permitted and how it is enforced
Act 721 makes no mention of online gaming. In practice the Commission licenses online operators under its general power to license “a specified game of chance”. The Chambers guide states that a company licensed to operate a game of chance may run both online and land-based operations, with payments typically made by mobile money. Online sports betting, online casino games and remote interactive games are therefore lawful in Ghana when offered by a company holding the relevant Commission licence.
Online activity dominates the market. A peer-reviewed paper in the Journal of Public Health Policy (Badu and others, 2025) cites estimates that about 80% of gambling in Ghana takes place online. Trade publication iGaming Business reported in May 2026 H2 Gambling Capital estimates of USD 903.5 million in online gross win for 2025, against USD 729.8 million in 2024. These are commercial estimates.
Enforcement against unlicensed and offshore operators
Ghana has no specific statutory regime for offshore operators. Enforcement relies on the general licensing requirement in section 13, criminal penalties and administrative measures:
- Website blocking. In late January 2025 the Commission wrote to the National Communications Authority (NCA) asking it to restrict access to the websites of 11 unauthorised gaming companies (Gaming Commission; GNA). We did not find a published blocklist.
- Payments. At the same meeting the Commission advised payment service providers to carry out due diligence with it before onboarding gaming businesses. This was advice, not a statutory duty.
- Administrative penalties. According to the Chambers guide, L.I. 2481 provides for administrative penalties including USD 500 per day for failure to pay winnings, USD 5,000 for breach of guidelines and USD 20,000 for misrepresentation.
- Regional presence. The Commission opened four new offices in 2026, in Ho, Agona Swedru, Sefwi Wiawso and Bekwai, partly to enforce compliance and protect minors (GBC, May 2026).
Advertising
There is no advertising provision in Act 721. Advertising is governed by the Commission’s Guidelines on Advertisement, which the 2025 public health paper dates to 2020. The guidelines provide that operators “shall not use celebrities in their advertisements” and that advertising “shall not appeal, either directly or indirectly, to persons under the legal gaming age (18 years)”. Children’s songs and cartoon characters may not be used. Radio and television advertisements may not be aired at prime time or during programmes rated for family or children’s audiences. Stationary outdoor advertising may not be placed within 200 metres of preschools and first and second cycle schools. Advertisements must carry warnings such as “Gamble Responsibly”, “only 18 years +” and “Gambling is addictive”, run as crawls for the full length of television and social media advertisements. The Commission may revoke advertising permits, and non-compliance “may affect the renewal” of a gaming licence. The authors of the 2025 paper argue that the guidelines do not deal explicitly with social media influencers.
Position of players
The criminal provisions of Act 721 are aimed mainly at operators. Section 63 penalises operating a game of chance without a licence, and section 19 penalises transferring a licence. Section 37, which makes it an offence to cheat “in playing at, or in betting on” a game or sporting event, can apply to players. We found no provision in Act 721 that makes it an offence for an adult to place a bet with an unlicensed online operator, and no reported prosecution of a player for doing so. Under Act 722, only the NLA may operate a lottery, and the offences in the Act are aimed at unlicensed operators and distributors.
That does not mean playing with an unlicensed site is safe. A player using an operator without a Commission licence has no access to the Commission’s complaints function under section 3, its self-exclusion process or its administrative penalties for non-payment of winnings. Children may not use gambling machines or join casinos, and the legal gaming age stated in the Commission’s guidelines is 18.
Taxation
Gambling taxation in Ghana was overhauled in 2023 by the Income Tax (Amendment) Act, 2023 (Act 1094), which amended the Income Tax Act, 2015 (Act 896). The Ghana Revenue Authority’s (GRA) practice note on gross gaming revenue and winnings explains the regime. It treats “lottery operations” broadly, covering sports betting, casinos, route operations, remote interactive games, national and private lotto and other games of chance.
| Tax | Rate and base | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Tax on gross gaming revenue (operators) | 20% of GGR, meaning total stakes less prizes or winnings paid or payable | In force since 2023 (Act 1094); still applicable (EY, August 2025) |
| Withholding tax on winnings (players) | 10% of gross winnings, meaning payout less the related stake, deducted by the operator | Applied from 15 August 2023 (Citi Newsroom); abolished by Act 1129, effective 2 April 2025 |
| Value added tax | Gaming services exempt | 15% VAT on stakes removed with the 2023 reform (Citi Newsroom; EY) |
The practice note gives 1 May 2023 as the commencement of the new regime, while the GRA announced that the withholding tax on winnings would be implemented from 15 August 2023. The National Democratic Congress promised in its 2024 manifesto to remove it. On 14 March 2025 Finance Minister Cassiel Ato Forson tabled the Income Tax (Amendment) Bill, 2025 to abolish it, citing the governing party’s manifesto. The Daily Graphic reported that about GH¢ 15 million a month had been recorded from the tax. Parliament passed the Bill on 26 March 2025 (GNA; Ministry of Finance). President Mahama signed it on 2 April 2025 (GamblingNews). EY states that the repeal under Act 1129 took effect on 2 April 2025 and that “players should no longer encounter WHT on their winnings”.
For operators, only prizes and winnings are deductible in calculating GGR; operating expenses are not. GGR returns are due monthly by the 15th day of the following month (EY). We found no reinstatement of a tax on players’ winnings, or change to the 20% GGR rate, in the sources reviewed up to October 2026.
Consumer protection and responsible gambling
Ghana has no statutory self-exclusion register. Self-exclusion is handled by the Gaming Commission, and the Chambers guide states that operators must comply with the Commission’s self-exclusion directives. At a webinar in May 2025 the Commission’s head of research reported that it had received 68 self-exclusion requests in 2024 and 31 in the first quarter of 2025 alone (Gaming Commission). The Commission’s report of that event lists a toll-free helpline, 0800 454 545, and states that mental health support services are available. A speaker cited a figure that 42% of Ghanaian adults gamble, but the report names no underlying study, so it should be read with caution.
Other protections come from the licensing system. Operators must verify customers’ identity using the national identity card, date of birth and mobile number, according to the Chambers guide. Children are barred from gambling machines and casinos under sections 48 and 58 of Act 721, and from National Lotto under section 20 of Act 722. The Commission launched a Gaming Awareness Month in September 2025 (Gaming Commission) and runs sensitisation programmes in schools, and in February 2025 the Minister for the Interior urged it to prevent minors from gambling (Gaming Commission). See also our responsible gambling guide.
Recent and upcoming developments
- Abolition of the winnings tax (2025). Act 1129 abolished the 10% withholding tax on winnings from 2 April 2025; the 20% GGR tax was unchanged.
- Calls for legislative review (2025 to 2026). During a working visit in February 2025 the Minister for the Interior stressed “the need for a review of the legislations governing the gaming industry, in the bid to strengthen governance” (Gaming Commission). At the Commission’s twentieth anniversary in May 2026, government speakers referred to “illegal online gaming platforms” and youth exposure to gambling content (Gaming Commission). As of 6 October 2026 we found no gaming bill laid before Parliament to amend or replace Act 721, so no new statute is pending in a form that can be described.
- Lottery sector (2024 to 2025). The NLA licensed fifteen private lotto operators in August 2024. In 2025 the NLA’s role in online and USSD lottery platforms was the subject of public dispute, reflected in the Citi Newsroom commentary on Act 722.
Casino listings for players in Ghana
The listings below are generated automatically from our casino database. They do not show that an operator holds a licence from the Gaming Commission of Ghana. Online casino games may lawfully be offered in Ghana only by companies licensed by the Commission, and readers should check the Commission’s register of licensed operators before relying on an operator’s claims.
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Sources and further reading
- Republic of Ghana (via GhaLII), Gaming Act, 2006 (Act 721) (2006).
- Republic of Ghana (copy hosted by the Office of the Registrar of Companies), National Lotto Act, 2006 (Act 722) (2006).
- Gaming Commission of Ghana, Requirements for a Gaming Licence (2025) (accessed 6 October 2026).
- Gaming Commission of Ghana, Guidelines on Advertisement (accessed 6 October 2026).
- Gaming Commission of Ghana, Licensed Operators (accessed 6 October 2026).
- Gaming Commission of Ghana, About the Commission (accessed 6 October 2026).
- Gaming Commission of Ghana, New Games Commissioner meets operators in the gaming industry (2025).
- Gaming Commission of Ghana, Interior Minister pays working visit to Gaming Commission of Ghana (2025).
- Gaming Commission of Ghana, Gambling, gaming and mental wellness: experts urge caution and responsible play amid rising addiction concerns (2025).
- Gaming Commission of Ghana, Gaming Commission of Ghana launches 20th anniversary celebrations (2026).
- Ghana Revenue Authority, Practice Note on Taxation of Gross Gaming Revenue and Winnings from Lottery Operations (2023).
- Ministry of Finance, Ghana, Parliament approves landmark tax and fiscal reforms (2025).
- EY, West Africa: Taxation of gaming and betting industry in Ghana and Nigeria (2025).
- Danquah, D. Y. (Legalstone Solicitors), Chambers and Partners, Gaming Law 2025: Ghana (2025).
- Badu, E., Crawford, G., Hallett, J. and Leavy, J. E., Gambling advertising regulation in Ghana: what do we know and where to next?, Journal of Public Health Policy 46(2) (2025).
- Ghana News Agency, I will ensure level playing field for all operators, Acting Games Commissioner (2025).
- Ghana News Agency, Parliament abolishes 10% withholding tax on bet winnings, 1.5% withholding tax on unprocessed gold (2025).
- Daily Graphic, Parliament: Finance Minister tables Bill to scrap 10% betting tax (2025).
- Daily Graphic, The NLA has granted these 15 private lotto operators licenses to operate in Ghana (2024).
- Citi Newsroom, GRA to implement 10% withholding tax on betting, lottery winnings from August 15 (2023).
- Opoku, R. K. (Citi Newsroom), Public education about National Lotto Act, 2006 (Act 722) and Lottery Regulations, 2008 (L.I. 1948) of NLA (2025).
- GBC Ghana Online, Gaming Commission expands operations to enforce regulations, protect minors against games of chance (2026).
- GamblingNews, Ghana gets rid of betting tax as President Mahama signs new law (2025).
- iGaming Business, Is Ghana primed to become Africa’s fourth largest online gambling market? (2026).
- Wikipedia, National Lottery Authority (accessed 6 October 2026; used as a pointer only).
