São Tomé and Príncipe Online Casino Guide

Legal casino gambling age in Sao Tome and Principe

Published by Casino News Daily editorial teamReviewed byFilip RadulovicOur editorial approach

São Tomé and Príncipe, a two-island state in the Gulf of Guinea with a Portuguese-derived civil law system, has a very small and lightly documented gambling sector. The most authoritative recent description comes from the 2024 anti-money laundering assessment of the country by the Inter-Governmental Action Group against Money Laundering in West Africa (GIABA). It records that the sector designated for anti-money laundering purposes includes a single casino, and that “the Department of Tourism licences and supervises gambling establishments and casinos”. No public framework for licensing online casinos or online sports betting has been identified, and the country’s gaming statute could not be located in any accessible official source. This guide sets out what can be verified, and identifies plainly what cannot.

Key points

Land-based gambling is licensed and supervised by the tourism authority, according to the GIABA mutual evaluation report adopted in November 2024.
The same report records one casino in the country and classes gambling and casinos among the sectors posing a higher money laundering risk.
No licensing regime for online casinos or online betting has been identified; trade press reported in January 2026 that no local online licences exist.
No published rule penalising residents who play on foreign websites was found, and no prosecutions of players were found.
There is no identifiable national self-exclusion scheme or dedicated gambling helpline; international online support services are the main option.

Last reviewed: 13 October 2026.

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Historical development

São Tomé and Príncipe became independent from Portugal on 12 July 1975. As Gerhard Seibert explains in his GlobaLex guide to the country’s legal system (updated 2025), the legal system “belongs to the civil law tradition”, and Portuguese laws in force at independence were to remain valid “until expressly revoked or revised”, provided they were compatible with the new constitutional order. Several Portuguese codes continued to apply for decades; Portuguese criminal law, for example, was applied until the country adopted its own criminal law in 2012. This continuity matters for gambling, because a field that has not been comprehensively legislated may still be shaped by inherited rules, although no source reviewed for this guide identifies which, if any, colonial-era gaming provisions remain in force.

The modern casino sector is very small: the 2024 GIABA assessment counted a single casino, and the responsibility of the tourism administration for licensing reflects the link between casino gaming and the tourist trade. It is sometimes said that land-based casino gaming was authorised by legislation around 2004 or 2005, but this could not be verified: no such instrument was found in the official gazette or in any legal database, and no official source confirms its date, number, title or content.

The country’s political history since independence has included frequent changes of government. Most recently, on 6 January 2025 President Carlos Vila Nova dismissed the government led by Prime Minister Patrice Trovoada, citing its inability to offer workable solutions to the country’s problems, as reported by Polígrafo África.

Legal framework

Sources of law

Law is made by the unicameral National Assembly of 55 members, which may legislate on all matters except those reserved to the government, and by the government itself, which issues decree-laws and decrees. Legislation is published in the official gazette, the Diário da República. The island of Príncipe is an autonomous region with its own regional government and regional legislative assembly (Seibert, GlobaLex). The constitution adopted in 1990 introduced multiparty democracy and was revised in 2003.

Gaming legislation

A specific gaming law (in Portuguese-speaking systems typically called a Lei do Jogo, or a decree-law on jogos de fortuna ou azar, games of chance) is referred to in secondary sources but could not be found or read for this guide. The GIABA mutual evaluation report describes the institutional responsibility for the sector without citing a gaming statute by name or number. It is therefore not possible to state with confidence what the law says about concession terms, permitted games, gaming zones, entry rules or penalties for unlicensed gambling.

Company law provides some indirect evidence that gambling operators are expected to be organised in a particular way. A 2018 investment guide by the Portuguese law firm PLMJ notes that companies operating games of chance (sociedades de exploração de jogos de fortuna ou azar) must be constituted as public limited companies (sociedades anónimas, SARL), and that non-financial companies holding gaming concessions or paying betting or lottery prizes are subject to a minimum share capital of 300,000 dobras (about EUR 12,245 at the time of writing of that guide).

Anti-money laundering law

The anti-money laundering framework is more fully documented. São Tomé and Príncipe is a member state of GIABA, the regional anti-money laundering body established by the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) in 2000, and one of three Portuguese-speaking members, alongside Cabo Verde and Guinea-Bissau. GIABA’s mutual evaluation of the country was adopted at its November 2024 plenary. It identifies the AML/CFT Act of 2013 and the CFT Act of 2018 as the core statutes and notes that the national risk assessment, covering 2017–2021, was developed under Decree-Law No. 04/2022. Casinos are “designated non-financial businesses and professions” (DNFBPs) under these rules, meaning businesses outside the financial sector that must apply customer due diligence and report suspicious transactions.

Regulator and licensing model

São Tomé and Príncipe has no dedicated gambling commission or gaming inspectorate that could be identified. According to paragraph 67(k) of the GIABA report, “the Department of Tourism licences and supervises gambling establishments and casinos”. Responsibility therefore sits with the tourism administration within government rather than with an independent regulator. The licensing procedure, fees, licence duration and conditions are not published in any source reviewed.

The model can best be described as a discretionary licensing system for land-based gambling, linked to tourism policy. In practice the market consists of:

one casino, recorded by GIABA as the whole of the casino sector in the country; and
other gambling establishments that the tourism authority is stated to license, although no official count or register of them has been published.

No public register of licensees exists online. The GIABA report noted that there was “no evidence of efforts to identify unlicensed agents and illegal activities in the DNFBP sector”, especially regarding real estate agents and casinos, which suggests that unlicensed land-based gambling is not systematically monitored.

No national lottery operated by the state, and no public tender for sports betting or lottery concessions in the 2020s, could be identified. If such concessions exist, their terms have not been published in sources that could be accessed.

Online gambling and enforcement

No law or regulation specifically authorising, licensing or prohibiting online gambling has been identified. In January 2026 the trade publication Focus Gaming News reported that São Tomé and Príncipe “does not currently regulate online gambling”, and that there are no local licences for online betting or online casino platforms. The same report, based on commercial web-traffic data for December 2025, described residents as accessing international betting and casino sites, though the absolute numbers were small: the most visited site recorded just over 430 visits.

The usual enforcement tools used elsewhere against unlicensed operators are absent:

Website blocking, meaning orders requiring internet service providers to prevent access to listed domains, has not been reported.
Payment blocking, meaning instructions to banks or payment providers to refuse transactions with unlicensed operators, has not been reported.
Advertising rules specific to gambling could not be found.

Because no domestic online licence is available, no operator can be described as locally licensed to offer online casino games to residents. Offshore sites that accept players from the country do so under licences issued elsewhere, which give residents no recourse to a local authority.

No government decree, gazette publication or other official source establishing an online gaming regulator was found, and the GIABA report, which lists the licensing and supervisory authorities in detail, names only the Department of Tourism in relation to gambling. Any body or website presenting itself as issuing São Tomé and Príncipe online gaming licences should therefore be treated with caution unless its authority can be traced to an official publication.

Position of players

No source reviewed describes a criminal or administrative penalty for an individual who gambles, whether in a licensed venue or with a foreign online operator, and no record of players being prosecuted or fined was found. Trade press reports describe residents as using international platforms. That is not the same as saying such play is protected or lawful in a positive sense: it takes place outside any domestic regulatory framework.

The practical consequences are significant. A player who uses an offshore site has no domestic regulator to complain to, no local dispute resolution, and no assurance of fair games or of payment of winnings beyond whatever is offered under a foreign licence. The GIABA evaluation also recorded that supervision of non-bank financial institutions and DNFBPs for anti-money laundering purposes had “yet to commence”, so even the land-based sector is not subject to active compliance oversight. Readers who are visiting the country should note that the minimum age for casino entry has not been confirmed from an official source.

Taxation

Operators

No gambling-specific tax, such as a tax on gross gaming revenue (GGR, meaning stakes received minus winnings paid out), could be identified. Gaming companies are subject to the general tax system. According to the PLMJ guide, the general rate of corporate income tax (IRC) is 25%, with a 20% rate for some types of income, and dividends paid to non-resident companies are generally subject to 20% withholding. Any concession fees or special levies imposed through individual licences have not been published.

São Tomé and Príncipe introduced value added tax on 1 June 2023. As the law firm Miranda & Associados reported, the VAT Code approved by Law No. 13/2019 entered into force under Law No. 02/2023, with a standard rate of 15% and reduced rates under special regimes. Whether gambling services are exempt from VAT, as they are in many countries, could not be confirmed.

Players

No specific rule on the taxation of gambling winnings was found. Personal income tax (IRS) is charged at progressive rates of up to 25%, and capital income and income of non-residents are generally taxed at 15% (PLMJ). Whether gambling prizes fall within the personal income tax base, or are taxed through a separate levy as in some other Portuguese-speaking countries, could not be verified. Players with significant winnings should seek advice from the national tax authority.

Consumer protection and responsible gambling

No national self-exclusion register, no statutory player-protection code and no dedicated gambling helpline in São Tomé and Príncipe could be identified. No public data on the prevalence of problem gambling were found. Protection in the land-based sector therefore depends on the policies of the licensed venue and on general consumer and criminal law.

The anti-money laundering framework provides a limited form of indirect protection. As DNFBPs, casinos are expected to identify customers and report suspicious transactions. The GIABA assessors, however, found that casinos showed “an absence of understanding of risk” and of the national risk assessment, and that “in the absence of supervision, no sanctions have been imposed” on DNFBPs (GIABA, 2024).

For people affected by gambling, international services are the most accessible option. Gambling Therapy, a free global service run by the UK charity Gordon Moody, offers practical advice, emotional support and multilingual forums, including Portuguese-language versions of its site. General guidance is also available in our responsible gambling guide.

Recent and upcoming developments

GIABA mutual evaluation (November 2024). The report rated all eleven effectiveness outcomes as low and rated Recommendation 22 (customer due diligence by DNFBPs) and Recommendation 28 (regulation and supervision of DNFBPs) as partially compliant. Casinos were brought within the full scope of the assessment because the national risk assessment had identified them as higher risk (GIABA, 2024). Follow-up action on DNFBP supervision is the most likely route by which casino oversight will be strengthened.
Political change (January 2025). President Carlos Vila Nova dismissed the Trovoada government on 6 January 2025 (Polígrafo África). No effect on gambling policy has been reported.
Online gambling (2025–2026). Trade press in January 2026 reported growing use of foreign betting and casino sites by residents, without any local licensing response (Focus Gaming News). No bill to regulate online gambling has been identified as of October 2026.
Gaming legislation. No reform of the land-based gaming framework, and no new concession or tender for casinos, sports betting or lotteries, was identified for 2023–2026.

Casino listings for players in São Tomé and Príncipe

The listings below are generated automatically from our casino database. They do not show that an operator is licensed in São Tomé and Príncipe: no domestic licence for online casino games exists, and the country has no public register of gambling licensees. The listings must not be read as an indication that an operator is authorised locally or that playing carries any local legal protection.

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São Tomé and Príncipe Online Casino Guide

Key points

Online casinos for Sao Tome and Principe

Historical development

Legal framework

Sources of law

Gaming legislation

Anti-money laundering law

Regulator and licensing model

Online gambling and enforcement

Position of players

Taxation

Operators

Players

Consumer protection and responsible gambling

Recent and upcoming developments

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