Legal casino gambling age in CameroonCameroon regulates gambling under a single framework law adopted in 2015 and a detailed implementing decree issued four years later. Law No. 2015/012 of 16 July 2015 sets the regime for “games of entertainment, money and chance”, and Decree No. 2019-2300/PM of 18 July 2019, signed by the Prime Minister, lays down how casinos, betting, lotteries and online games may be operated. The model is one of state permission rather than open competition: casinos, betting and public lotteries need a concession, online betting and online poker need a ministerial authorisation, and certain small lotteries need only a declaration. Day-to-day responsibility sits with the “Minister in charge of games”, a role that press and law-firm sources attribute to the Ministry of Territorial Administration (MINAT). Online sports betting has grown quickly, and in 2025 control of its payment flows became the subject of an open dispute inside government. This guide sets out what the published sources show and where they leave questions open.
Key points
- The framework statute is Law No. 2015/012 of 16 July 2015 fixant le régime des jeux de divertissement, d’argent et de hasard, implemented by Decree No. 2019-2300/PM of 18 July 2019, a text of 135 articles.
- The decree recognises three regimes: concession (casinos, betting establishments, public lotteries), authorisation (entertainment games, commercial lotteries, online games) and declaration (occasional and private lotteries).
- Only two kinds of online game can be authorised: online betting and online poker. Operators need a Cameroonian subsidiary, a “.cm” website and a bank guarantee of FCFA 200 million; authorisations last five years.
- Law-firm commentary reports that operating online games without authorisation is punishable under the 2015 law by six months to two years’ imprisonment and/or a fine of FCFA 5 million to 25 million.
- Licensees pay an annual gaming levy of 2% of turnover excluding taxes, and since the 2025 finance law deposits and withdrawals linked to gaming carry a 1% tax on money transfers.
Last reviewed: 7 October 2026.
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Historical development
For most of the period since independence, organised gambling in Cameroon has been associated with a small number of concession holders rather than with an open licensing market. The best-known is the Pari Mutuel Urbain Camerounais (PMUC), which takes bets on horse races run abroad through a retail network across the country. Public information on its legal history is thin. A Cameroonian business directory, Maligah, states that a concession contract signed on 16 June 1994 gave PMUC the right to organise betting on horse races in Cameroon, that its capital is FCFA 200 million, and that it operates through a network of nearly 1,500 kiosks and around 40 agencies. These details come from a directory rather than an official register, and we were unable to confirm them from a primary source. Contemporary press confirms PMUC’s role: in July 2013 Financial Afrik reported a PMUC payout of FCFA 180.2 million, described as the largest prize ever won on horse-race betting in Cameroon, and in 2015 Business in Cameroon described it as a horse-betting company when reporting a staff housing agreement with the state housing bank, Crédit Foncier du Cameroun.
The modern statute, Law No. 2015/012, was adopted in July 2015, but its implementing rules did not follow until July 2019. When the decree was published, the business weekly EcoMatin presented it under the headline that the state was putting an end to “anarchy” in games of chance. A November 2019 report by Le360 Afrique quoted Alain Salomon Issanda Issanda, then Director of Political Affairs at the Ministry of Territorial Administration, as saying that the decree “vient préciser, entre autres, les modalités d’exercice de l’activité” (specifies, among other things, how the activity is to be carried on), and reported that most gaming companies had until then been operating without proper authorisation.
Legal framework
Law No. 2015/012 of 16 July 2015
The framework statute is Law No. 2015/012 of 16 July 2015 fixant le régime des jeux de divertissement, d’argent et de hasard (setting the regime for games of entertainment, money and chance). Its number, date and title are confirmed by the opening citations of the implementing decree published by the Prime Minister’s Office. We were not able to obtain an official full text of the law itself for this review. Points attributed to the law below therefore come from the decree or from named secondary sources.
According to an analysis by Marie-Colette Kamwé Mouaffo, a lecturer at the University of Ngaoundéré, published in L’Essentiel Droits africains des affaires (July 2020), the reform moved the sector from a simple authorisation model to a more restrictive one in which the operation of games of chance is placed under “a regime of exclusive rights delivered by the State”, justified by the risks the activity carries.
Decree No. 2019-2300/PM of 18 July 2019
The decree of 18 July 2019 “précise les modalités d’application” (specifies the implementing rules) of the 2015 law (article 1). Its main provisions are:
- Three regimes (article 3). Games are subject to concession, autorisation or déclaration. A concession is a contract under which the state grants a private party the right to run an activity it controls; an authorisation is a permit issued on application; a declaration is a simple notification to the authorities.
- Concessions. Casinos, betting establishments and public lotteries operate under concession contracts with the Minister in charge of games, for a term of ten years, renewable (article 5).
- Casino categories. Casinos are divided into four categories, A to D, broadly by the number of slot machines (Category A having more than 100 and Category D up to 25). The required deposit ranges from FCFA 250 million for Category A to FCFA 25 million for Category D (article 24).
- Betting. Both mutual (pool) and fixed-odds betting are recognised (article 29). Concessions are Type A where turnover exceeds FCFA 3 billion and Type B otherwise (article 30), with deposits of FCFA 100 million and FCFA 50 million respectively (article 34). At least 50% of stakes must be returned to players (article 31).
- Public lotteries. A deposit of FCFA 50 million is required (article 44), and sales of lottery tickets to minors are prohibited (article 39).
- Minors (article 16). “Ne peuvent prendre part aux jeux de casinos, aux paris ou aux loteries publiques: les personnes n’ayant pas atteint l’âge de la majorité civile” (persons who have not reached the age of civil majority may not take part in casino games, betting or public lotteries).
- Promoters (article 2). Anyone promoting games must be of full age, of good character and free of convictions for offences of violence.
The CFA franc (FCFA) referred to throughout is the currency shared by the six states of the Central African Economic and Monetary Community (CEMAC).
Other legislation
Gambling operators are also subject to the CEMAC anti-money-laundering regulation. Citadel Law Firm (2023) notes that, under CEMAC Regulation No. 01/03-CEMAC-UMAC, gaming establishments must file an activity statement with the National Agency for Financial Investigation (ANIF), Cameroon’s financial intelligence unit, before starting operations, show the origin of their funds and keep transaction records for five years. The current Penal Code is Law No. 2016/007 of 12 July 2016 (WIPO Lex). The versions available to us were incomplete, and we could not verify whether, or in which article, the Code still contains a general gambling offence. No Penal Code provision is therefore summarised here.
Regulator and licensing model
Cameroon does not have a fully independent gambling commission with a public register. The decree allocates powers as follows:
- The Minister in charge of games signs concession contracts, grants online authorisations (article 97) and imposes administrative sanctions after taking the regulator’s advice (article 116). The ministry also keeps the register of persons barred from gambling (article 111). Law-firm and press sources identify this minister as the Minister of Territorial Administration (Citadel Law Firm; Le360 Afrique). Press reports in 2025 named the minister, Paul Atanga Nji, as the official directing the sector’s regulation.
- The Agence de Régulation des Jeux (Gaming Regulatory Agency) carries out “contrôles d’ordre général” (general inspections) of casinos, betting establishments and lottery companies (article 17), and collects the annual gaming levy (article 126). We found no official website, founding decree or published register for the agency, and could not confirm how far it has been set up in practice.
- Prefects. The competent prefect may close entertainment-game premises immediately where the business licence (patente) has not been paid or sums collected for the Public Treasury have not been remitted (article 117).
Administrative sanctions under the decree range from temporary closure for breaches of hygiene, security, public order or opening hours to definitive termination of the operating title for breaches of the principles of sincerity and transparency or, more generally, of the decree (article 116). Clandestine online games and clandestine public lotteries are to be closed immediately (article 121). Entry and renewal fees for concessions depend on the category, with amounts to be fixed by order of the Prime Minister (article 125). We found no official list of concession holders or authorised online operators, so the number of licensees cannot be stated.
Online gambling
What can be authorised
The 2019 decree treats online gaming as an authorisation regime. A promoter of online games or betting is “toute personne qui, de manière habituelle, propose au public des services de jeux ou de paris en ligne comportant des enjeux en valeur monétaire” (any person who habitually offers the public online gaming or betting services involving stakes of monetary value) (article 82). The same article limits the category: “Relèvent de la catégorie des jeux en ligne: les paris en ligne; le poker en ligne” (online games comprise online betting and online poker). Online casino games such as slots, roulette and blackjack are not on that list. On the text of the decree, there is therefore no authorisation route for an online casino in Cameroon.
The main conditions for an online authorisation are:
- a company based abroad “doit avoir une filiale au Cameroun” (must have a subsidiary in Cameroon) (article 85);
- a bank guarantee of FCFA 200 million, mandatory security audits of the platform, and a website “accessible exclusivement par un nom de premier niveau comportant la terminaison « .cm »” (accessible only through a top-level domain ending in “.cm”) (article 103);
- proof that the operator can prevent fraud and criminal activity, including money laundering (article 95);
- player accounts opened only at the player’s express request, not by automatic procedures (article 92), with dormant blocked funds reverting to the state after three years (article 93);
- authorisation by the Minister in charge of games for “cinq (5) ans renouvelable” (five years, renewable) (article 97).
Citadel Law Firm adds that payments must be made exclusively online through a payment service provider, and that operators need civil-liability insurance and a data-protection policy (Mondaq, 2023).
Offshore operators and enforcement
According to Citadel Law Firm, Law No. 2015/012 provides that “whosoever operates an online gaming activity without authorization shall be punished with imprisonment from six (06) months to two (02) years or a fine from five million (5,000,000fcfa) to twenty-five million (25,000,000fcfa) or both”. We could not check the article number against an official text of the law. The decree adds the administrative power to close clandestine online games immediately (article 121).
We found no published blocklist of gambling websites, no evidence of systematic ISP blocking, and no official statistics on enforcement. A July 2026 opinion piece first published by Digital Business Africa and republished by Osiris criticised the lack of public enforcement statistics, weak age verification on digital platforms and the absence in practice of deposit caps, self-exclusion tools and a national exclusion register. The state’s main lever over online betting has instead been the mobile-money channel through which most deposits and withdrawals pass (see Recent developments below).
The decree contains no general code on gambling advertising. Its only advertising rule we identified bars online gaming sites from carrying advertising for lenders or links that enable lending to players (article 115).
Position of players
The penalty reported by Citadel Law Firm applies to “whosoever operates” an online gaming activity without authorisation. We found no provision, in the decree or in the secondary sources, making it an offence for an individual in Cameroon to place a bet with an unauthorised site, and no reports of players being prosecuted. Because we could not read the full text of the 2015 law or verify the Penal Code, we cannot exclude a provision applying to participants. Players who use unauthorised sites have none of the protections the decree requires of licensed operators.
Minors are excluded by article 16 of the decree, which refers to the age of civil majority. A 2019 press report describes the legal minimum as 18 (Le360 Afrique); EcoMatin refers only to minors, without an age. Le360 also reported that at least one operator applied an internal minimum of 21. We did not verify the civil-majority age against the Civil Code, so readers should treat the precise threshold with caution.
Taxation
- Annual gaming levy. Every holder of a concession or authorisation pays “une redevance des jeux annuelle de 2% sur son chiffre d’affaires hors taxes” (an annual gaming levy of 2% of turnover excluding taxes), collected by the Agence de Régulation des Jeux (decree, article 126). The explanatory memorandum to the 2026 finance law lists a measure “clarifying the procedures for collecting the annual levy on games”; we did not find the detailed wording.
- Tax on money transfers. The Ministry of Finance’s presentation of the 2025 tax measures records an “augmentation du tarif de la TTA (de 0,2 % à 1 %), pour les dépôts et les retraits d’argent dans le cadre des activités de jeux de hasard et de divertissement”, a fivefold increase, from 0.2% to 1%, in the tax on money transfers applied to deposits and withdrawals made for gambling and entertainment games (article 228 quinquies of the General Tax Code).
- Tax on games of chance and entertainment. The General Tax Code contains a chapter headed “Taxe sur les jeux de hasard et de divertissement”, with common provisions and specific provisions for casinos and for entertainment games and slot machines. We were unable to extract the current rates from the published code, so they are not stated here.
We did not find an official source setting out how players’ winnings are taxed, and we make no statement on it. Readers should consult the Directorate General of Taxation.
Consumer protection and responsible gambling
On paper, the 2019 decree contains a reasonably complete set of player-protection duties for licensed operators:
- operators must check the “fichiers des interdits de jeu tenus par les services du Ministère en charge des jeux” (registers of persons barred from gambling kept by the ministry) and close the accounts of barred players (article 111);
- operators must offer “mécanismes d’auto-exclusion et de modération”, meaning self-exclusion and moderation tools, including limits on deposits and stakes, and show players their account balance at all times (article 112);
- operators must provide a telephone number, charged at the local rate, through which players can obtain help or assistance with excessive gambling (article 114);
- “Le jeu à crédit est interdit” (gambling on credit is prohibited), and operators may not lend to players (article 115).
We found no public information on how the ministry’s register of barred players works, how a person can enrol in it, or whether a national helpline exists. Commentators have argued that these mechanisms are missing in practice (Digital Business Africa, 2026). Players who need support can ask a licensed operator for its self-exclusion and limit tools and helpline number, and can find general guidance in our responsible gambling guide.
Recent and upcoming developments
- July 2024: presidential approval of a revenue-tracking partnership. According to a report by Camer.be (1 April 2025), the President approved in July 2024, on a proposal from the Ministry of Finance, a partnership with a company named N-SOFT to capture revenue from the digital economy, including online gaming.
- January 2025: payment aggregator directive. On 22 January 2025, according to the same report, the Minister of Territorial Administration instructed mobile operators that all reloading and withdrawal operations for online gaming accounts “devront exclusivement passer par l’intégrateur technique”, the company InTouch, from 30 January 2025. Launch Base Africa (4 February 2025) reported the ministry’s letter to a mobile network operator and criticism from the local fintech sector about the absence of a competitive selection process.
- February–March 2025: dispute within government. Camer.be reported that on 6 February 2025 the Secretary General of the Presidency, Ferdinand Ngoh Ngoh, objected, arguing that the ministry’s competence did not extend to tax matters, which belong to the Ministry of Finance, and that on 18 March 2025 he asked the Minister of Posts and Telecommunications to allow activities to resume without InTouch’s intermediation. The report put the money passing through online gaming operators at FCFA 600 billion to 700 billion and stated that InTouch would hold funds for about a week, with a 7% share going to the ministry. These figures come from a single press report and have not been confirmed by official sources. We found no later official statement on how the dispute was resolved.
- 2026 debate on harm. The July 2026 Digital Business Africa piece called for mandatory identity checks before deposits, unannounced inspections, published sanctions, licence withdrawals for serious breaches and higher taxes earmarked for prevention. As of October 2026 we found no bill or decree implementing these proposals.
Casino listings for players in Cameroon
The listings below are generated automatically from our casino database and do not show that any operator is authorised in Cameroon. Under Decree No. 2019-2300/PM only online betting and online poker can be authorised, and only for operators with a Cameroonian subsidiary and a “.cm” website; online casino games have no authorisation route. The listings must not be read as an indication that playing at these sites from Cameroon is lawful, and no public register of authorised operators exists for checking them.
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Sources and further reading
- Services du Premier Ministre (Cameroon), Décret n° 2019-2300/PM du 18 juillet 2019 précisant les modalités d’application de la loi n° 2015/012 du 16 juillet 2015 fixant le régime des jeux de divertissement, d’argent et de hasard (2019).
- Marie-Colette Kamwé Mouaffo, Cameroun : les nouvelles règles du jeu, L’Essentiel Droits africains des affaires no. 7 (2020).
- Citadel Law Firm (via Mondaq), Online Gambling in Cameroon (2023).
- EcoMatin, Législation : l’État stoppe l’anarchie dans les jeux de hasard (2019).
- Le360 Afrique, Cameroun. Paris sportifs : les jeunes misent gros (2019).
- Ministère des Finances (MINFI), Exposé des mesures fiscales : lancement du budget 2025 (2025).
- Direction Générale du Budget, Exposé des motifs de la loi de finances 2026 (2025).
- Direction Générale des Impôts, Code général des impôts, édition 2022 (2022).
- WIPO Lex, Cameroon: Law No. 2016/007 of 12 July 2016 relating to the Penal Code (accessed 7 October 2026).
- Camer.be (Olivier Berhuse), Cameroun – Jeux de hasard : Ngoh Ngoh et Atanga Nji à couteaux tirés pour 600 milliards FCFA (2025).
- Launch Base Africa, InTouch secures sole control over Cameroon’s gambling payments, yet scrutiny grows (2025).
- Digital Business Africa (republished by Osiris), Paris sportifs en ligne : le Cameroun ne peut plus fermer les yeux (2026).
- Financial Afrik, Cameroun : 180 millions gagnés au pari sur les courses de chevaux (2013).
- Business in Cameroon, Cameroon’s Pari Mutuel Urbain joins hands with the Crédit Foncier to facilitate access to immovable property for its agents (2015).
- Maligah, Pari Mutuel Urbain Camerounais (company profile) (accessed 7 October 2026).
