Legal casino gambling age in Congo
This guide covers the Republic of the Congo, often called Congo-Brazzaville after its capital. It is a separate country from the Democratic Republic of the Congo (Congo-Kinshasa), whose rules are explained in our DR Congo guide. Gambling in the Republic of the Congo has recently moved onto a new statutory footing. Law No. 37-2024 of 11 October 2024 on the regulation of games of chance and money (jeux de hasard et d’argent) set out in a single text a system of licence categories, a public monopoly for lotteries and horse-race betting, rules for online games, a framework for taxation and a list of criminal offences. Law No. 1-2025 of 29 March 2025 then created a dedicated regulator, the Autorité de régulation des jeux de hasard et d’argent (ARJHA). Tax rates and many licensing conditions are left to finance laws and implementing regulations.
Key points
- Law No. 37-2024 of 11 October 2024, published in the Journal officiel on 12 December 2024, is the main statute on gambling. It covers land-based and online games and applies to operators wherever they are established.
- Law No. 1-2025 of 29 March 2025 created the ARJHA, a public body with legal personality and financial autonomy, under the supervision of the minister responsible for gambling.
- Lotteries, scratch games and horse-race betting are reserved to a national gaming company. Sports betting, casinos and online games require an approval (agrément) and the operator must be a public limited company in which the State holds at least 10% of the capital.
- Online gambling offered without Congolese authorisation must be blocked, and the regulator may order internet service providers to block illegal sites.
- The law sets no specific penalty for adult players who use unauthorised sites; the offences it creates are aimed mainly at operators, promoters and those who allow minors to gamble.
- Gaming tax rates are to be set by the annual finance law; no specific rates could be verified in the published text of the 2026 finance law.
Last reviewed: 13 October 2026.
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Historical development
The Republic of the Congo is a French-speaking state in Central Africa with a population of 6,142,180 recorded in the census of May 2023 (French Treasury summary of the census). It uses the Central African CFA franc (XAF) and is governed under the 2015 constitution, with a bicameral parliament made up of a National Assembly and a Senate (country overview). Its laws are published in the Journal officiel de la République du Congo.
For several decades the main lawful gambling products were lotteries and horse-race betting run by a national body. According to a report in Les Dépêches de Brazzaville of 9 October 2025, the company that now runs these games was created on 25 January 1991 “on the ashes of” the former Loterie nationale congolaise (Les Dépêches de Brazzaville via AllAfrica). The report describes it as offering horse-race betting and online betting through its own websites, notes a partnership of several decades with a French horse-racing betting organisation, and states that the company was “going through a difficult moment”. Its ownership and legal status, and whether it is the national gaming company referred to in the 2024 law, could not be confirmed from a primary source.
The 2024 and 2025 laws described below set out a consolidated framework for the whole sector, including online games, and created a regulator dedicated to gambling. Law No. 37-2024 contains no general repeal clause; earlier approvals remain valid until they expire.
Legal framework
Law No. 37-2024 on the regulation of games of chance and money
The central text is Law No. 37-2024 of 11 October 2024 regulating games of chance and money, published in issue No. 50-2024 of the Journal officiel on 12 December 2024 (pages 1521 to 1528). It was signed by President Denis Sassou-N’Guesso and countersigned by the Prime Minister and six ministers.
Article 1 states that the law governs the creation, location, regulation and tax regime of gambling for any operator, professional or occasional, “whatever the location, the legal status, the nature of the services and the type of games”. Article 2 places the sector under the ministry responsible for gambling and lists among the law’s aims the protection of minors, the prevention of addiction and the fight against money laundering. Article 4 requires the State to take measures against excessive gambling, promote responsible gambling, draw up an ethics charter and impose compulsory entry checks at all gaming establishments.
Article 6 contains the definitions. Online games (jeux en ligne) are games of chance “developed and operated by means of electronic communication networks”; a casino is an establishment with one or more gaming rooms open to the public; and a horse-race bet is a game of chance in which the winnings depend on the accuracy of a forecast. Article 6 also requires a gambling operator to be a public limited company (société anonyme) with a fully paid-up minimum share capital of FCFA 2 billion.
Licence categories and regimes
Article 7 sorts gambling into four categories:
- Category I: sports betting (physical and online), casinos and online virtual games;
- Category II: horse-race betting, lotteries and scratch games, reserved exclusively to the national gaming company;
- Category III: physical casinos; and
- Category IV: virtual games and slot machines.
Articles 26 to 30 set out four legal regimes. A public monopoly means that only one, State-designated entity may offer a product; here it covers horse racing, lotteries and scratch games, and private investors may hold up to 49% of the national company. An approval (agrément) is required for legal entities in categories I, III and IV. An operating authorisation applies to individual premises in categories III and IV and may be held by individuals or companies. A special authorisation covers occasional tombolas. Under Articles 32 and 33 the national company also holds the exclusive right to any category of game not otherwise listed.
Article 25 bars slot machines from homes, schools, hospitals, places of worship, railway stations and airports, and Article 15 forbids managers, shareholders and staff of a gaming establishment from playing, directly or indirectly, in games it organises.
Offences and penalties
Article 41 lists seventeen offences. They include operating gambling in breach of the law, concealing gaming proceeds from levies, forging lottery tickets, importing slot machines fraudulently, using uncontrolled gaming software, manipulating machines or software, organising clandestine games, laundering stakes or winnings of fraudulent origin, offering gambling to minors, and the participation of minors. Penalties under Articles 50 to 60 range from fines of FCFA 1 million to FCFA 100 million and, for the most serious offences, prison terms of up to five years. For example:
- opening a casino or slot-machine venue without authorisation is punishable by two months to one year in prison and/or a fine of FCFA 1 million to 10 million (Article 53);
- broadcasting non-compliant gambling advertising carries a fine of FCFA 1 million to 10 million (Article 50);
- running illegal online gambling, or offering gambling to minors, is punishable by one to five years in prison and/or a fine of FCFA 5 million to 10 million (Article 59); and
- manipulating sports competitions or other events is punishable by one to five years in prison and/or a fine of FCFA 10 million to 100 million (Article 60).
Administrative sanctions under Articles 44 to 47 include confiscation, suspension or withdrawal of approvals, and bans of one to five years on operating or taking part in gambling activities. The regulator may impose a financial penalty of up to 3% of the highest annual turnover of the previous three years, rising to 5% for repeat offences, and may claim all taxes due for a period of unauthorised operation.
Implementing texts and transition
The organisation of the regimes is to be set by a decree adopted in the Council of Ministers (Article 31), and the conditions for approvals, authorisations and withdrawals are to be fixed by regulation (Articles 8, 13 and 39). These implementing texts were not located in the online Journal officiel. Under Articles 61 to 63, existing operators other than the national company had to apply for an approval or authorisation within one year of promulgation; existing approvals remain valid until they expire, and holders may request up to 24 months to comply. Provisions on police powers and the protection of minors and vulnerable persons applied immediately.
Regulator and licensing model
The Republic of the Congo now combines a monopoly for lotteries and horse-race betting with a licensing model for sports betting, casinos, virtual games and online games. Under Article 8 of Law No. 37-2024, approvals are issued by the administration responsible for gambling after a conformity opinion from the regulator. A distinctive condition is that the State must hold at least 10% of the share capital of every approved operator.
Law No. 1-2025 of 29 March 2025, published in the Journal officiel No. 17-2025 of 24 April 2025, created the Autorité de régulation des jeux de hasard et d’argent (ARJHA). The ARJHA is a public administrative body with legal personality and financial autonomy, based in Brazzaville and supervised by the minister responsible for gambling. It is administered by a management committee and run by a director general appointed by decree in the Council of Ministers; its detailed organisation is to be set by statutes approved by decree. The law was countersigned by the Minister of Finance among other ministers.
Article 7 of Law No. 1-2025 gives the ARJHA a broad set of functions. It is to:
- monitor compliance with gambling laws and regulations;
- give opinions on applications for approvals and operating licences, and on their suspension or withdrawal, which are pronounced by the minister;
- approve gaming equipment and set its technical specifications;
- map gaming establishments and ensure the traceability of online gambling, storing the necessary data;
- keep a list of persons banned from gambling;
- impose financial penalties after receiving the operator’s written observations;
- order internet service providers to block illegal gambling sites temporarily or as a precaution and redirect users to a dedicated site; and
- contribute to defining the sector’s tax regime and check that levies are shared among their legal beneficiaries.
The ARJHA is funded by shares of the gaming tax, fines, approval fees, operating fees and special authorisation fees, without percentages being fixed in the law. At the time of review, this guide could not find a published decree approving the ARJHA’s statutes, an appointment of its director general, an official website or a public register of approved operators.
Online gambling and enforcement
Online gambling is legally possible in the Republic of the Congo, but only through authorised operators. Article 7 of Law No. 37-2024 places online sports betting and online virtual games in Category I, which requires an approval. Under Article 19 online games are subject to the same conditions as physical ones, and an operator needs a separate approval for each type of online game. Online operators must provide real-time monitoring of bets, archive data for three years on a medium located in the Republic of the Congo, set out their measures against money laundering and excessive gambling, check the list of banned persons and close the accounts of banned players, and display on their home page how to register on the banned-persons lists.
Article 48 states plainly that “access to an online gaming offer is blocked where it is not authorised in the Republic of the Congo”. Blocking here means an order to internet service providers to prevent access to a website and, in this case, to redirect users to an official site. The regulator may issue such orders with the support of the posts and electronic communications regulator. Article 49 provides a 15-day internal review procedure.
No published blocklist, enforcement statistics or court decisions concerning online gambling in the Republic of the Congo were found for this review. Because Article 1 applies the law whatever an operator’s location, an offshore website that accepts Congolese players without a Congolese approval falls outside the authorised framework, but how actively this is enforced could not be verified.
Payments are a practical point of control. A November 2025 report by the business site Ecomatin described a provision in the draft 2026 finance law imposing a 20% “cybersecurity levy” on online betting and gaming platforms, fund-transfer services and digital payment platforms, calculated on revenue from existing transfer and electronic-transaction charges, collected by the Treasury and allocated to the national information-systems security agency (Ecomatin, 6 November 2025). The searchable parts of the Finance Law for 2026 (Law No. 42-2025 of 31 December 2025) reviewed for this guide did not contain this levy, so whether it was enacted in that form could not be confirmed.
Position of players
Law No. 37-2024 regulates the supply of gambling rather than the conduct of adult players. Its offences are directed at operators, promoters, staff, forgers, distributors of prohibited lotteries and those who manipulate games or sports events. It does not set a specific penalty for an adult who places bets with an unauthorised online operator, and no prosecutions or fines of players were found. In practice, unauthorised sites may be blocked, and players using them lack the protections the law requires of approved operators.
Minors are treated differently. “The participation of minors in games of chance and money” is listed as an offence in Article 41, and operators who offer gambling to minors face prison terms of one to five years. The text reviewed did not state a minimum age in years. Staff and shareholders of a gaming establishment may not play in games it organises, and persons on the banned-persons list must be refused by online operators.
Taxation
Law No. 37-2024 sets out the structure of gaming taxation but not the rates. Article 34 distinguishes taxes specific to gambling from the general taxes paid by all companies. Article 35 provides for a levy on stakes, to be shared among the State, the regulator, local authorities and other beneficiaries. Article 36 provides that the rates of the gaming tax “are fixed by the finance law” and that casino rates are progressive, and Article 37 requires the rates for online and virtual games to be higher than those for other games. Operators also pay ordinary taxes under the General Tax Code (Article 38).
The 2026 budget was adopted by both chambers of Parliament during the session that closed on 23 December 2025 (Les Dépêches de Brazzaville, 29 December 2025) and promulgated as Law No. 42-2025 of 31 December 2025. In the parts of the published text reviewed, no gaming tax rates were found. This guide therefore does not state a current rate of gaming tax on operators, and no specific tax on players’ winnings could be verified.
Consumer protection and responsible gambling
The 2024 and 2025 laws set framework duties rather than a functioning scheme with published tools:
- State duties: the State must take measures against excessive gambling, promote responsible gambling, adopt an ethics charter and require compulsory entry checks at gaming establishments (Law No. 37-2024, Article 4).
- Operator duties: horse-race and sports-betting operators must adopt an ethics charter and publish information materials (Article 5); online operators must describe their measures against excessive gambling (Article 19).
- Banned-persons list: the ARJHA is to keep a list of persons barred from gambling (Law No. 1-2025, Article 7), and online operators must close the accounts of listed players and explain how to register on the list. This is the legal basis for a form of self-exclusion, meaning a person’s voluntary request to be barred from gambling, but no public procedure for registering could be found.
- Protection of minors: minors may not take part, and offering gambling to them is a criminal offence.
No national gambling helpline or specialist treatment service for gambling problems in the Republic of the Congo was identified for this review. People who are concerned about their own gambling or that of someone close to them can find general guidance in our responsible gambling guide, and may seek help from a doctor or local health services.
Recent and upcoming developments
- Law No. 37-2024 (October–December 2024). The gambling law was signed on 11 October 2024 and published on 12 December 2024, introducing licence categories, the public monopoly, online rules, blocking and new offences.
- Creation of the ARJHA (March–April 2025). Law No. 1-2025 of 29 March 2025 created the regulator and was published on 24 April 2025.
- Transitional deadlines (2025–2027). Existing operators had one year from promulgation to apply for approval, and may request up to 24 months to comply with the new rules.
- Cybersecurity levy (2025–2026). A 20% levy on online gaming and payment platforms was reported in the draft 2026 finance law in November 2025. Its inclusion in the final text could not be confirmed.
- Amending finance law for 2026. The Council of Ministers examined an amending finance bill for 2026 on 30 June 2026 (Council of Ministers record), and the Finance Minister presented it to Parliament on 14 July 2026 (Les Dépêches de Brazzaville, 15 July 2026). Neither the official record nor the press report mentioned gambling measures.
- National lottery company. In October 2025 the management of the company that succeeded the former national lottery and its long-standing French horse-racing partner discussed a plan “over four years and more” to make its horse-race betting offer more attractive.
Casino listings for players in the Republic of the Congo
The listings below are generated automatically from our casino database. They do not show that an operator holds an approval in the Republic of the Congo. Under Law No. 37-2024, online games may be offered only by operators approved in the country, and unauthorised online offers are to be blocked; no official public register of approved operators was available at the time of review, so the listings must not be read as an indication that a site is authorised or that playing on it is lawful. The governing rules can be checked in the official text of Law No. 37-2024 in the Journal officiel.
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Related country guides
- DR Congo gambling guide
- Angola gambling guide
- Gabon gambling guide
- Cameroon gambling guide
- Rwanda gambling guide
Sources and further reading
- Secrétariat général du Gouvernement, Journal officiel de la République du Congo No. 50-2024, Loi n° 37-2024 du 11 octobre 2024 portant réglementation des jeux de hasard et d’argent (2024; accessed 13 October 2026).
- Secrétariat général du Gouvernement, Journal officiel de la République du Congo No. 17-2025, Loi n° 1-2025 du 29 mars 2025 portant création de l’autorité de régulation des jeux de hasard et d’argent (2025; accessed 13 October 2026).
- Secrétariat général du Gouvernement, Journal officiel de la République du Congo, special issue No. 3-2026, Loi n° 42-2025 du 31 décembre 2025 portant loi de finances pour l’année 2026 (2026; accessed 13 October 2026).
- Secrétariat général du Gouvernement, Compte rendu du Conseil des ministres du 30 juin 2026 (2026; accessed 13 October 2026).
- Bruno Zéphirin Okokana, Les Dépêches de Brazzaville (via AllAfrica), Report on the management of the company that succeeded the former Loterie nationale congolaise (9 October 2025; title abridged).
- Ecomatin, Jeux en ligne, transferts de fonds : le Congo impose une redevance de cybersécurité de 20 % (6 November 2025).
- Parfait Wilfried Douniama, Les Dépêches de Brazzaville (via AllAfrica), Finances publiques : le budget de l’Etat, exercice 2026 arrêté à plus de 2 550 milliards FCFA (29 December 2025).
- Parfait Wilfried Douniama, Les Dépêches de Brazzaville (via AllAfrica), Parlement : la loi de finances rectificative présentée devant les deux chambres (15 July 2026).
- Direction générale du Trésor (France), Recensement 2023 au Congo-Brazzaville (27 February 2024).
- Wikipedia, Republic of the Congo (accessed 13 October 2026).
