Legal casino gambling age in NamibiaNamibia regulates gambling under two statutes that came into force together on 1 December 2021. The Gaming and Entertainment Control Act, 2018 (Act 13 of 2018) covers casinos, gambling machines, betting and totalizators, and established the Gambling Board of Namibia. The Lotteries Act, 2017 (Act 13 of 2017) covers the State Lottery, sports pools and other lotteries, and established a separate Lotteries Board. Both answer to the Minister of Environment, Forestry and Tourism. Namibia is a licensing jurisdiction for land-based gambling. Online games are prohibited unless authorised under the 2018 Act, and as of 6 October 2026 we found no regulations that create an online game licence. The country’s main regulatory problem has been the very large number of unlicensed gambling machines in bars and shebeens (informal drinking venues).
Key points
- The Gaming and Entertainment Control Act, 2018 replaced the Casinos and Gambling Houses Act, 1994 (Act 32 of 1994). It and its 2020 amendment came into force on 1 December 2021.
- The Gambling Board of Namibia licenses casinos, gambling houses, bookmakers, totalizators, manufacturers, suppliers and testing agents. The levy on casino and gambling house income is 10%.
- Section 73 of the Act provides that no person may “engage in or make available an online game, except as authorised”. The 2021 regulations contain no online game licence.
- Bookmakers withhold a 5% levy from players’ betting winnings. In April 2025 the High Court confirmed that licensed gambling houses must pay the 10% levy.
- Players may register themselves as “restricted persons” under section 77, and family members can apply to court for an order registering a compulsive gambler.
- In 2026 the Ministry consulted on amended regulations, including a central electronic monitoring system for machines, and the Board began assessing bookmaker and totalizator licence applications.
Last reviewed: 6 October 2026.
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Historical development
Before independence in 1990, gambling in the territory was governed by South African-era legislation, including the Gambling Act 51 of 1965 and the Licensing of Totalisators Ordinance 5 of 1938. Both were finally repealed by the 2018 Act, according to the Legal Assistance Centre’s NAMLEX index of Namibian gambling law (updated 15 July 2026).
The first post-independence statute was the Casinos and Gambling Houses Act, 1994 (Act 32 of 1994). It licensed casinos and “gambling houses”, which are premises where gambling machines are kept and played. From 1 January 1997 a statutory moratorium (Act 28 of 1996) stopped the issue of new gambling house licences, although casino applications continued to be processed. According to the Ministry of Environment and Tourism, 254 gambling house licences and 6 casino licences had been issued as at November 2016. A Lotteries Act was passed in 2002 (Act 15 of 2002) but, according to NAMLEX, was never brought into force.
The moratorium did not stop the spread of machines. When the Minister of Environment and Tourism, Pohamba Shifeta, presented the Gaming and Entertainment Control Bill in April 2018, he said that about 20,000 unlicensed machines were operating, compared with 2,845 registered machines and annual state revenue of N$22 million from the licensed sector (New Era, 10 April 2018). In February 2020 the Ministry began nationwide inspections to build a database of licensed and unlicensed premises. The Ministry said the exercise had been ordered by the High Court and estimated that the unlicensed machines were spread across about 2,600 illegal gambling houses (New Era, 10 February 2020).
The Gaming and Entertainment Control Act was signed on 16 November 2018 and published in Government Gazette 6793 on 13 December 2018. It was amended by the Gaming and Entertainment Control Amendment Act, 2020 (Act 5 of 2020), published on 14 July 2020. By Government Notice 253 of 2021, both Acts came into operation on 1 December 2021, the date the notice was published, together with new regulations. The Lotteries Act, 2017 commenced on the same day.
Legal framework
All gambling legislation in Namibia is national. The Minister responsible for gambling is currently the Minister of Environment, Forestry and Tourism.
Gaming and Entertainment Control Act, 2018 (Act 13 of 2018)
The Act is the main gambling statute. Its key provisions include:
- Section 5 establishes the Gambling Board as a juristic person (a body with its own legal personality). Under section 7, it consists of seven appointed members, including a legally qualified member and five members with specified expertise, plus the chief executive officer.
- Section 29 defines a gambling activity as placing or accepting a bet or wager, placing or accepting a totalizator bet, or playing or making available a gambling game (and an amusement game where it must be licensed).
- Section 70 provides that “a person may not engage in, conduct or make available a gambling activity” other than a licensed activity or a prescribed amusement game. The penalty is a fine of up to N$50,000, imprisonment of up to 10 years, or both.
- Section 71 controls dealings in gambling machines without a licence, with fines of up to N$100,000. Section 72 prohibits making premises available for unlicensed gambling.
- Section 73 deals with online games (discussed below).
- Section 74 protects minors, defined as persons under 18, and requires licence holders to take reasonable steps to verify age.
- Section 77 creates the register of restricted persons, and section 79 allows the Minister to restrict advertising and promotions.
- Sections 25 to 28 establish the Gambling Trust Fund, which receives fees, levies and penalties. Sections 62 to 65 impose levies on licence holders.
The 2020 amendment defined a minor as a person under 18, required the Board to promote education about the risks of gambling, and added section 40A, which allows the Minister to prescribe further types of licence. Under section 57, casino licences issued under the 1994 Act are treated as issued under the new Act for 50 years from its commencement, and gambling house, bookmaker and totalizator licences for 25 years.
Gambling and Gambling Activities Regulations, 2021
The Gambling and Gambling Activities Regulations (Government Notice 254 of 2021) were published with the commencement notice. They set the levies (see Taxation) and the annual licence fees in Annexure 1: N$100,000 for a casino, N$50,000 for a gambling house and N$20,000 each for bookmakers and totalizators. Regulation 42 also limits the number of machines: there is no limit for casinos, and up to 20 are allowed in a gambling house, up to 10 for bookmakers and bars, and up to five in a shebeen. A single or linked machine may not offer a prize above N$70,000 without the Board’s approval (regulation 41). The regulations contain no provisions on online gambling.
Lotteries Act, 2017 (Act 13 of 2017)
The Lotteries Act establishes the Lotteries Board and provides for “the conduct of the State Lottery and sports pool by the Board or through a licensee”. Under section 30 the Minister may issue no more than one licence at a time to run the State Lottery. Section 74(1) makes it an offence to conduct, promote or advertise an unauthorised lottery or to sell tickets in one, with fines of up to N$4,000,000 or imprisonment of up to 20 years. The Act defines a minor as a person under 21, and section 76 makes it an offence to invite, cause or permit a minor to take part in a lottery. The Act repealed the Lotteries Act, 2002.
Other legislation
NAMLEX notes that the Financial Intelligence Act 13 of 2012 imposes anti-money-laundering reporting duties on gambling operators.
Regulator and licensing model
Namibia follows a licensing model for gambling and a single-licence model for the State Lottery. We found no state-owned casino or betting operator.
| Activity | Statute | Regulator |
|---|---|---|
| Casinos, gambling houses, bar and shebeen machines | Gaming and Entertainment Control Act, 2018 | Gambling Board of Namibia |
| Betting (bookmakers and totalizators) | Gaming and Entertainment Control Act, 2018 | Gambling Board of Namibia |
| State Lottery, sports pools, other lotteries, promotional competitions | Lotteries Act, 2017 | Lotteries Board |
The Gambling Board. Its first members were appointed by Government Notice 258 of 2021, with further appointments in 2023 and 2024 (NAMLEX). According to The Economist (Namibia), the first board, chaired by retired Commissioner Ben Shikongo, served a term from 1 July 2021 to 30 June 2024. The Board’s website lists an acting chief executive officer, John Erastus, as of October 2026. Its FAQ states that “any individual or business that offers or operates gambling activities, such as casinos, betting shops, and slot machine venues, must be licensed”. We did not find a public register of licence holders on the site.
Licence types. Section 33 of the Act lists casino, gambling house, bookmaker, totalizator, manufacturer and supplier, testing agent and key employee licences, and section 40A allows further types. The regulations distinguish between gambling house, bar and shebeen machine licences. The term “limited payout machine”, used in South Africa, does not appear in the Namibian Act; low-value machines outside casinos are instead licensed by venue type. A transitional period allowed existing operators, including unlicensed gambling houses, to apply for licences or reclassification. The Minister extended it “for the final time” to 31 August 2023 (Ministry statement, 20 June 2023). In July 2025 the Minister, Indileni Daniel, told the National Assembly that the Board had “attended to over 280 applications from illegal operators” since 2021 (iGaming Afrika, 10 July 2025).
The Lotteries Board. As of October 2026 Namibia has no operating State Lottery. In 2023 the Board’s chairperson said the operator would need to provide an N$100 million guarantee and would be chosen through public procurement (NBC, 2023). In April 2026 the Board’s chief executive, Johannes Shimaneni, said that appointing a licensed operator remained one of its priorities (SiGMA, 27 April 2026).
Online gambling: what is permitted and how it is enforced
Section 1 of the Act defines an “online game” as a gambling game played through communication technology that allows money to be transferred electronically, where the player transmits the information needed to place a bet. Bets placed with a bookmaker or totalizator by such means are excluded. Section 73 then provides:
“(1) A person may not engage in or make available an online game, except as authorised in terms of this Act. (2) For the purposes of subsection (1), the Minister may prescribe (a) the online games that may not be made available for play under this Act without an online game licence; (b) the form and manner in which the licence … may be obtained; …”
The effect depends on regulations that have not been made:
- Online casino games. The 2021 regulations do not prescribe any online game licence, so we found no route by which an online casino can be authorised. Offering or playing such games is therefore not authorised under the Act. The commentator Erasmus Hamunjela wrote in February 2026 that “Namibia’s current priority … is consolidating its land-based regulatory framework not expanding into online licensing” (The Brief, 26 February 2026).
- Online sports betting. Remote bets with bookmakers fall outside the definition of an online game and are regulated as bookmaking under the bookmaker licence. In September 2026 the Board invited bookmaker and totalizator applicants to a workshop on 15 October 2026 covering technical assessment of “proposed betting platforms” (Focus Gaming News, 22 September 2026). How online betting will be licensed in practice had not been published at the time of writing.
Offshore operators and enforcement
We found no website-blocking list, internet service provider blocking programme or payment-blocking rule aimed at offshore gambling sites, and no reported prosecution of an offshore operator. Enforcement since 2021 has concentrated on unlicensed machines and premises. In February 2026 the Minister told a Board strategy retreat that regulators faced “rapid proliferation of betting houses, licensed gambling venues and internet-based gambling platforms” (Focus Gaming News, 27 February 2026).
Advertising
Section 79 allows the Minister to prescribe restrictions on the advertising and promotion of gambling, and licence holders must comply with them. Regulation 48 prohibits advertisements suggesting that gambling is an alternative to employment or a means of financial security.
Position of players
Section 70 of the Act is not limited to operators: it provides that a person may not “engage in” a gambling activity unless it is licensed or a prescribed amusement game, with penalties of up to N$50,000 or 10 years’ imprisonment. On its wording this appears to cover a player who gambles at an unlicensed venue. Section 73 likewise bars any person from engaging in an unauthorised online game. Our review of the Act did not find a penalty attached to section 73 itself, and we found no general penalty clause. Section 74(1)(b) of the Lotteries Act covers participation in an unauthorised lottery. We found no reported prosecution or fine of a player for gambling at an unlicensed venue or online.
The minimum age for gambling under the 2018 Act is 18; the Lotteries Act sets 21. Section 74 of the 2018 Act prohibits minors from entering gambling areas and from gambling (other than on amusement games), and requires operators to verify age. The Act sets the penalty at a fine of up to N$10,000 or two years’ imprisonment. In July 2025 the Minister told Parliament that the fine for allowing underage betting was N$20,000 (iGaming Afrika); we could not confirm an amendment raising it.
Taxation
Gambling in Namibia is taxed mainly through levies paid to the Gambling Board under the Act, alongside ordinary income tax and VAT. The regulations of 2021 set the levies:
| Licence holder | Levy | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Casinos, gambling houses, bars and shebeens | 10% of net monthly income | Section 62; regulation 29 |
| Totalizators | 10% of gross takings each month | Section 64; regulation 31 |
| Bookmakers | 5% of players’ winnings, deducted before payment | Section 65; regulation 32 |
The levy was challenged by the Gambling House Association of Namibia, which argued that its members should not pay until illegal operators were closed or legalised and relied on a 2020 settlement agreement with the Ministry. On 16 April 2025 Judge Nate Ndauendapo dismissed the application with costs, holding that the 2018 Act superseded the 1994 law and that the settlement agreement had fallen away by operation of law. The judgment noted that the association’s members operated about 580 machines against roughly 5,800 unlicensed ones (The Namibian, 16 April 2025). In Public Notice 001 of 2026, issued on 23 January 2026, the Board required all licence holders to settle outstanding levies and fees by 30 April 2026, warning of penalties, suspension or revocation (Focus Gaming News, 16 February 2026).
Gambling businesses also pay income tax. In March 2026 the Namibia Revenue Agency (NamRA) signed a data-sharing agreement with the Board to compare operator and winnings data with its taxpayer register. The Commissioner, Sam Shivute, said: “Once you are generating income or profit, it falls within the tax net” (The Brief, 20 March 2026). For ordinary players, apart from the 5% bookmaker levy on betting winnings, we found no official source setting out a separate tax on gambling winnings.
Consumer protection and responsible gambling
Namibia’s main harm-reduction tool is the register of restricted persons. Under section 77 a person may apply to the Board to be registered as a restricted person, which is a form of self-exclusion, and may later apply to cancel it. The Act also allows a court to order the registration of a person at the application of a family member or dependant, for example where the person shows compulsive gambling behaviour. The Board’s responsible gambling page directs applicants to Form 26 under regulation 36(1), and regulation 38 requires licence holders to keep a list of restricted persons on their premises. The same page gives a contact number for assistance, +264 (0)83 707 0610, which is also the Board’s general number. We found no independent national gambling helpline or treatment service.
Other measures include compulsory signs warning of “the dangers of addictive or compulsive gambling” in licensed premises (regulation 51) and a central electronic monitoring system for machines, which the Ministry described in 2022 as a way to “detect and monitor significant events associated with gambling machines” (New Era, 7 March 2022). The Gambling Trust Fund may be applied to research, addiction services, public education and rehabilitation in percentages set by the Minister. In July 2025 the Minister said a national gaming policy addressing addiction and rehabilitation was being developed. General guidance is available in our responsible gambling guide.
Recent and upcoming developments
- Political priority (2025). In her first address to Ministry staff on 31 March 2025, Minister Indileni Daniel listed “capitalising and fully operationalizing the Lotteries and Gambling Boards” as a focus (MEFT).
- Levy litigation (2025). The High Court upheld the 10% levy on 16 April 2025. We found no report of an appeal.
- Amended regulations (consultation, 2026). The Ministry held consultations from 24 March to 9 April 2026 on amendments to the regulations. Trade reports describe stricter licence documentation, a central electronic monitoring system with a 1% maintenance fee and a 5% monitoring fee, and a new fee schedule (iGaming Afrika, 26 March 2026). As of 6 October 2026 we found no published final text.
- Tax enforcement (2026). NamRA and the Board agreed in March 2026 to share data on operators and winnings, and the Board set a 30 April 2026 deadline for unpaid levies.
- Betting licences (2026). The Board’s workshop of 15 October 2026 is intended to move bookmaker and totalizator applications to technical assessment. In August 2026 the Board also announced work on national gambling technical standards (GBN).
- State Lottery (pending). No operator had been appointed by October 2026.
Casino listings for players in Namibia
The listings below are generated automatically from our casino database. They do not show that an operator holds a licence from the Gambling Board of Namibia, which has not published an online register of licence holders. Under section 73 of the Gaming and Entertainment Control Act, online games may be offered or played only as authorised, and no online casino licence has been prescribed, so the listings must not be read as an indication that playing online casino games is lawful in Namibia.
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Sources and further reading
- Republic of Namibia, Gaming and Entertainment Control Act, 2018 (Act 13 of 2018) (NamibLII, accessed 6 October 2026).
- Republic of Namibia, Government Gazette No. 6793: Gaming and Entertainment Control Act, 2018 (2018).
- Republic of Namibia, Government Gazette No. 7269: Gaming and Entertainment Control Amendment Act, 2020 (Act 5 of 2020) (2020).
- Republic of Namibia, Government Gazette No. 7693: Government Notices 253 and 254 of 2021 (commencement; Gambling and Gambling Activities Regulations) (2021).
- Republic of Namibia, Lotteries Act, 2017 (Act 13 of 2017) (NamibLII, accessed 6 October 2026).
- Legal Assistance Centre, NAMLEX: Gambling (index of Namibian legislation, 15 July 2026 update) (2026).
- Ministry of Environment and Tourism, Casinos and Gambling Houses (accessed 6 October 2026).
- Ministry of Environment, Forestry and Tourism, Implementation of the Lotteries Act and the Gaming and Entertainment Control Act (press statement) (2023).
- Ministry of Environment, Forestry and Tourism, Statement by Honourable Indileni Daniel, MP (2025).
- Gambling Board of Namibia, Home page; Frequently asked questions; Responsible gambling (accessed 6 October 2026).
- New Era, Unlicensed gambling machine owners face jail (2018).
- New Era, Govt tightens gambling law: nationwide inspections of businesses underway (2020).
- New Era, Gambling law requires responsible business practices (2022).
- The Economist (Namibia), Govt misses out on substantial revenue from the unregulated gambling industry; new board inaugurated (accessed 6 October 2026).
- The Namibian, High Court orders Namibian gambling houses to pay levies (2025).
- iGaming Afrika, Namibia takes steps to regulate and combat rising gambling and sports betting issues (2025).
- iGaming Afrika, Namibia seeks public input on updated gambling regulatory reforms (2026).
- Focus Gaming News, Gambling Board of Namibia issues levy payment ultimatum to licensed operators (2026).
- Focus Gaming News, Namibian minister Indileni Daniel urges gambling board to tighten oversight as betting activity expands (2026).
- Focus Gaming News, Namibia Gambling Board invites bookmaker and totalisator applicants to licensing workshop (2026).
- Hamunjela, E., The Brief, Will Namibia follow South Africa’s lead on online gambling taxation? (2026).
- The Brief, NamRA targets betting industry, gambling operators and winners in tax crackdown (2026).
- NBC, Lottery board unable to operate state lottery (2023).
- SiGMA, Namibia’s Lotteries Board outlines vision, regulation and growth (2026).
