The African iGaming Alliance launched the inaugural Africa Safer Gambling Week on 7 September, using the #PlaySafeAfrica banner to push player protection across the continent. The five-day campaign is meant to keep gambling-sector growth aligned with consumer protection, responsible gambling and wider public awareness, and the alliance says it will become an annual event.
Each day of the week is built around a different theme: responsible gambling, setting personal limits, using safer-gambling tools, preventing underage gambling and warning players about illegal and unlicensed operators. The programme includes a formal launch, media engagement, public education, community outreach and a continental webinar, while participating jurisdictions are being given common campaign materials that local regulators can adapt to their own markets.
As reported in August, the alliance had already been talking player safety with Kenya’s regulator. This week it widened that push, urging regulators, licensed operators, trade groups and responsible-gambling organisations to share good practice and keep safer gambling high on the policy agenda.
Support has come from regulators and industry bodies including Uganda’s National Lotteries and Gaming Regulatory Board, Tanzania’s Gaming Board, South Africa’s National Gambling Board, the Malawi Gaming and Lotteries Authority, the Lagos State Lotteries and Gaming Authority and the Association of Gaming Operators of Kenya. The alliance has also argued that illegal and unlicensed gambling weakens consumer safeguards and leaves players with fewer protections when problems arise.
Uganda’s board has its own responsible-gaming programme, which combines treatment and counselling with public awareness, education, training and research. It says it works with ministries, schools, community leaders and media on sensitisation, offers confidential voluntary counselling through a toll-free helpline, and has stepped up enforcement against illegal advertising and online betting. The board has said it confiscated more than 5,000 illegal slot machines with police support and blocked 23 unauthorised betting websites.
Focus Gaming News said the campaign will conclude on Friday, 11 September, with a continental webinar called “The Hidden Cost of Illegal Gambling: What Does the Black Market Mean for Player Protection?” The session will examine the growth of illegal and unregulated gambling, the risks players face outside regulatory oversight and ways to strengthen protection in licensed markets.
