JOHANNESBURG, SOUTH AFRICA (ADV) – Uganda has clarified that its new anti-gambling policy only applies to international betting and gambling companies operating in Africa.
The clarity comes after Uganda Finance Minister for planning, David Bahati was delegated by President Yoweri Musuveni to announce recently that the issuing and renewal of licences will not be provided to gambling firms.
However, Finance Minister Matia Kasaija said that the new policy was specifically targeted at ‘foreign’ sports betting companies that repatriate revenue from their local betting operations back to their base of operations outside Uganda.
“We’re not banning gaming, we’re saying this activity should be limited to only Ugandans,” said Kasaija.
“We have said that licensees that are running will not be renewed and new ones will not be issued to foreigners because we’ve discovered so much of our money is being exported through that gaming thing which as far as I am concerned has little value to the economy.”
Bahati said, “the government’s aim is to strengthen the regulatory framework by reviewing the betting sector in order to regulate the number of betting companies because there are complaints that they are mushrooming everywhere.”
He added that the government would use its review to determine how many betting operators are to be licensed and where they should operate across the country.”
The time of the commencement has not yet been disclosed, the ministry of finance will issue the media statement.
Meanwhile, Samuel Mutekanga from Betway had previously told the media that his company had not been consulted.
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