The regulators of the gaming sector in Uganda are proposing new regulations that will see the number of betting parlours reduced by introducing biddings for shops.
Edgar Ababa, the CEO of National Gaming Board Uganda revealed that this is part of planned interventions that seek to phase out the mushrooming gaming points across the country.
“We have made a proposals to government to regulate the number of gaming shops in a given location. In the case of Kampala, we think each Division should have 20 shops and they should be given out through a bidding process,” Agaba told a news conference at Uganda Media Centre on Thursday.
He said that the current 1,200 betting parlours that are scattered in Uganda, 720 of which are in Kampala, Wakiso, Mukono and Entebbe, are way too many.
He revealed that the gaming Board is grappling with the unregulated gaming points that have sprung up in small towns and centres where they are not supposed to be operating. This illegality, he said, has been facilitated by the mobile equipment being used which is difficult to track by enforcement teams.
“Going forward, it will no longer be the case where someone wakes up and opens up a betting shop. It will be through open bidding, with minimum requirements and say conditions that one can only have one license in a given location”.
“We also intend to acquire a Central Monitoring System that will help us track the revenue collected, taxes remitted and identifying potential betting addicts,” he said.
Also among the plans in the pipeline are stringent guidelines on local content in the gaming industry which is currently dominated by foreigners.
“Ugandans must own these betting companies to a certain extent. Effective 2019, one of the conditions to offer a license will be reserving a certain percentage for Ugandans,” Ababa said.
The new regulations await the approval of the Minister mid this year.
However, Agaba admits that the plan to phase out the betting parlours in Kampala and major towns has to be implemented gradually given its economic implications both on Ugandans and government.
In the 2016/17 financial year, government generated Shs 36 billion in tax revenue from the gaming sector while in the half year period for this financial year, Shs 22 billion has so far been generated.
But beyond the taxes, hundreds of people employed in these betting parlours risk to lose jobs.
In regards to regulation of online sites which is the new frontier for betting and gaming, Agaba said that all local websites will be required to have licenses or risk being shut down by UCC.
