How to get a gambling licence in Zambia: fees and steps

The statutes divide gambling by product, and each product has its own issuer. For an online betting business the one that matters is the Betting Control and Licensing Board (BCLB), set up by section 3 of the Betting Control Act.

• The Board has a chairman nominated by the Minister, the Inspector General of Police or a representative, a police officer not below the rank of Superintendent, and up to five other members; the quorum is four.
• The Betting Control Act does not name the ministry responsible. No website, register or guideline of the Board was found on the official sites reached, so ask the Ministry of Finance and National Planning for the Board’s address.
• The Zambia Revenue Authority (ZRA) administers the Betting Levy Act; the Financial Intelligence Centre (FIC) is the anti-money-laundering authority; the Independent Broadcasting Authority sets the rules broadcasters follow.
• There is no public licence register and no published count of licensees, and none of the Acts requires the Board to keep one. Licence numbers quoted by third-party sites are not official.

Laws that apply

• Betting Control Act, Cap. 166 (Act 27 of 1957), with the Betting Control Regulations and Forms 1 to 4; Betting Control (Amendment) Act, 2021 (Act 50 of 2021): fee and one-year licence, in force 1 January 2022
• Betting Levy Act, 2025 (Act 27 of 2025), in force 1 January 2026 · Customs and Excise (Amendment) Act, 2025 (Act 11 of 2025)
• Income Tax Act as amended (Acts 43 of 2021, 22 of 2024, 10 of 2025 and 17 of 2025) · Value Added Tax Act, Cap. 331
• Tourism and Hospitality Act, 2007, Part VI (casino licensing, land-based), kept in force by the Tourism and Hospitality Act, 2015, s. 81(4) · Lotteries Act, Cap. 163 · Pools Act, Cap. 165 · State Lotteries Act, Cap. 328 · Gaming Machines (Prohibition) Act, Cap. 92
• Financial Intelligence Centre Act, 2010 (Act 46 of 2010), as amended by Act 16 of 2020, and the FIC guidelines for the casino, gaming or gambling sector (version 2.0, 18 August 2023)
• Fees and Fines (Fee and Penalty Unit Value) Regulations, 2014, as amended: S.I. 25 of 2024 sets a fee unit and a penalty unit at K0.40

No Act creates a licence class specific to online gambling, and none says how a remote operator is licensed. The bookmaker’s licence is issued “at the premises named therein or at any race meeting” (s. 5(1)) and states the premises “if any” (s. 10). Whether the BCLB licenses online bookmakers on the Act 50 of 2021 fee, and on what conditions, is not published.

• Whether a bookmaker may offer casino-style or virtual games under the bookmaker’s licence is not addressed in the Act; ask the BCLB.
• Whether one licence can cover several brands, domains or websites is not addressed: the Act has no concept of a brand, domain or website, and no list of websites is published.
• No numerical cap on licences is set; the Board decides each application in its absolute discretion.

A bookmaker is any person who by way of business bets with members of the public, including a person operating a football pool. That person needs a bookmaker’s licence; a company may hold it, and each partner in a partnership must be licensed.

• A bookmaker’s licence cannot be transferred (s. 24), and a move of premises needs the Board’s authority.
• There is no B2B licence: no supplier, platform, game provider or aggregator class exists in the gambling Acts, and no individual game or platform must be approved or certified.
• A game provider or platform that takes bets from the public in its own name is a bookmaker and needs the bookmaker’s licence; one that only supplies a licensed operator is outside these licences. Ask the Board whether any condition on a licence covers suppliers, because conditions are not published.
• A foreign licence is not recognised, and nothing in the Acts recognises a foreign supplier licence either.

The Board decides “in its absolute discretion” and may refuse “without reason given”. It may not grant a licence unless it is satisfied that the applicant is a fit and proper person and the premises are suitable (s. 7(2)).

• No local entity is required: the licence goes to any “person”, and a company may hold it. No nationality or seat test is published, and whether the Board licenses an operator with no presence in Zambia is not stated.
• No minimum share capital, no local director or representative, no local office rule for a remote operator and no local bank account are required. Whether a remote operator needs a Zambian address is not stated.
• No shareholder, beneficial owner, director or key-person test is stated, and no business plan or financial projection is asked for.
• Nothing requires platform or game certification, and no testing laboratory is named. No pre-approval or pre-application procedure is described.

The application is on paper, in duplicate on Form 1 to the Board, at least 40 days before the date the business is to start (regs 3, 4). No decision deadline binds the Board, and no typical timeline is published.

• Objections reach the Board within 21 days of publication of the advertisement (reg 7), and the Board gives at least 10 days’ notice of the meeting at which it hears the applicant and objectors (reg 9).
• The values that make a bookmaker a small business enterprise (total investment, annual turnover, number of employees) are prescribed, and the prescribing instrument was not found. Ask the BCLB which fee applies.
• Renewal is on Form 2, which gives the gross turnover of the last twelve months, and follows the original procedure. The fee unit was 30 ngwee before 19 April 2024, when S.I. 25 of 2024 made it 40 ngwee.
• A refusal can be appealed to the Minister by any person aggrieved (s. 26); no time limit and no further appeal are stated.

As of 22 October 2026 three national charges reach an online betting company, each in its own Act, and no repeal of one by another appears in the texts.

• The levy return and payment are due within ten days after the end of each month; a late return or remittance carries a penalty of 300,000 penalty units for each month or part of a month (K120,000), which the Commissioner-General may waive in whole or part.
• ZRA’s example: a K100 deposit carries K5 of levy and a K200 withdrawal carries K10. Whether an operator-credited bonus counts as a “deposit” is not stated; ask ZRA.
• A betting company must keep a record of its operations for six years and electronic records of every deposit and withdrawal, on a system capable of integration with ZRA’s systems for automated reporting and verification.
• Brick-and-mortar betting companies are exempt from the levy. Presumptive tax on betting and gaming applies from 1 January 2026 to land-based products and gaming machines only.
• The Commissioner-General may issue rules on books of account and returns for the levy; none were found, so ask ZRA whether a return form has been issued.

No gambling instrument requires platform or game certification, names a technical standard or accepts a testing laboratory. The one system requirement is in tax law.

• The record system must be capable of integration with ZRA’s systems (Betting Levy Act s. 7(3)). No live link to the Board, no real-time reporting and no geolocation control is required.
• No local domain, local server or mirror is required by the gambling laws. The Data Protection Act, 2021 would require player personal data to be stored on a server or data centre in Zambia (s. 70), but its commencement instrument was not found, so it is not stated to be in force; ask the Data Protection Commissioner.
• The longest retention period is ten years under the anti-money-laundering Act; a betting company’s record of operations is kept for six years.
• No minimum or maximum return to player, stake, jackpot or spin rule applies to betting or casino games, and none addresses autoplay, free spins or demo play. Ask the Board whether a licence condition does, because conditions are not published.
• No instrument requires a gambling operator to report incidents to the Board.

The minimum gambling age is 18. Beyond that, no player-protection tool is required of an operator by any instrument found.

• A player may complain to the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission about unfair trading or a false or misleading representation; that is general consumer law, not gambling-specific.
• No instrument sets a withdrawal time limit, and none lists permitted or prohibited payment methods, credit cards or cryptocurrency. Payment providers are licensed by the Bank of Zambia, not the Board.

A casino, gaming or gambling operator is a designated non-financial business or profession and so a reporting entity under the Financial Intelligence Centre Act as amended by Act 16 of 2020.

• The Act’s list of supervisory authorities names the casino Licensing Committee and the Centre itself, and does not name the BCLB. Which body supervises a betting company is not stated; ask the FIC.
• Duties: customer due diligence before an account is opened, including beneficial ownership and enhanced due diligence for high-risk customers; no anonymous accounts; an internal programme with training, screening, transaction monitoring and independent audit.
• Suspicious transactions are reported to the FIC not later than three working days after the suspicion forms; cash currency transaction reports are due at the kwacha equivalent of USD 10,000 or more.
• The compliance officer must be senior, have two years’ experience in regulatory compliance and be certified and approved by the Centre. The Act does not say the officer must live in Zambia.
• Identity and transaction records are kept for not less than ten years. Administrative sanctions by the Centre or a supervisory authority go up to one million penalty units (K400,000), with a High Court appeal within 30 days.

Zambia has no statute dedicated to gambling advertising and no regulator of it. Advertising is controlled by offences inside the gambling Acts and by general law.

• Touting or personally soliciting for a bookmaker outside licensed betting premises or an authorised race meeting is an offence, with a fine of up to 50 penalty units (K20) (Betting Control Act s. 15). Whether online affiliate marketing is “personal” solicitation is not decided.
• Advertising an unauthorised lottery or an unauthorised pool is an offence, with a fine of up to 1,500 penalty units (K600).
• The Independent Broadcasting Authority’s Standard Operating Procedures ban product placement of gambling in programmes (rule 9.2.2.8(b)) and bar sponsorship by anyone prohibited from advertising on television. The list of products not allowed on television is not printed; ask the Authority whether gambling is on it.
• False or misleading representations, including about bonus conditions, are prohibited by the Competition and Consumer Protection Act, 2010 (s. 47). No instrument requires regulator approval before an advertisement, responsible-gambling warnings, or limits on influencers, minors or live-event advertising.
• No instrument makes an operator liable by name for its affiliates’ advertising.

The Board has no power to fine. It may, at any time and for good cause, suspend or cancel a licence or vary its conditions, and must give a reasonable opportunity to show cause before suspending for more than seven days or cancelling (s. 11).

• Carrying on bookmaking without a licence is an offence: a fine of up to 100 penalty units on a first conviction and up to 5,000 penalty units on a second or later conviction (s. 5(3)).
• No power to block websites, domains or applications is given to the Board or the Minister by the gambling Acts, and none was found in the cyber or ICT laws. The Commissioner-General may appoint an agent to withhold the levy before payments to or from a betting company are facilitated.
• No offence aimed at a player who bets with an unlicensed operator was found. Some premises-based provisions of the Penal Code reach players in gaming houses; whether they apply to remote play is not addressed.
• A director is personally liable under the Lotteries Act and the FIC Act in some cases; the Betting Control Act and the Betting Levy Act have no director-liability clause.
• No pending change was found in an official source: the National Assembly bills lists as of 22 October 2026 hold no bill on betting, gaming, lotteries or casinos.

The bookmaker’s licence route, in the order the Act and Regulations set. Start by asking the Board about online operation, because that part is not published.

1. 01

   Ask the BCLB whether and how it licenses an online bookmaker

   no published contact; ask the Ministry of Finance and National Planning

   Ask whether the Board lists websites on a licence, which conditions it attaches to an online operator, the current security amount, the small business enterprise values and whether a foreign company without a Zambian presence can apply. Ask ZRA about the excise on betting.

2. 02

   File Form 1 in duplicate

   at least 40 days before you start

   Submit the application to the Board in duplicate on Form 1 (regs 3, 4). It covers the applicant, any partners, previous bookmaking, any fraud or bankruptcy history and the premises. There is no application fee.

3. 03

   Advertisement, objections and hearing

   21-day objection period; 10 days’ notice of the meeting

   The Board advertises the application in the Gazette and one local newspaper at your expense; anyone may object within 21 days. It gives 10 days’ notice of its meeting and hears you and any objectors (regs 6, 7, 9).

4. 04

   The Board’s decision

   no decision deadline

   The Board decides in its absolute discretion, after satisfying itself that you are fit and proper and the premises are suitable. A refusal can be appealed to the Minister (s. 26).

5. 05

   Pay the first-issue fee and furnish the security

   K200,000 (K100,000 for a small business enterprise)

   The fee is 500,000 fee units at K0.40, or 250,000 for a small business enterprise. The Board imposes a fidelity bond or other approved security as a condition of every licence (s. 8(1)). The licence is valid for one year.

6. 06

   Operate: renew, pay the levy and report

   K100,000 a year; levy monthly

   Renew each year on Form 2 (250,000 fee units, or 125,000 for a small business enterprise). File and pay the 5% Betting Levy within ten days after each month end, keep the records for six years, submit audited accounts at least every twelve months, and meet the FIC duties with a compliance officer approved by the Centre.

Tier-ordered: official government first, then practitioner, then trade media. Every primary figure was read from the in-force text on 22 Oct 2026.