DR Congo Centralizes Gambling Oversight as Government Targets Lost Tax Revenue

The Democratic Republic of the Congo, or DRC, has moved to tighten control over gambling regulation and tax collection, reaffirming that the Ministry of Finance is the sole authority responsible for licensing, oversight and related public revenues.

The clarification was reported on September 9 and follows a government communiqué aimed at ending uncertainty over which public bodies can issue approvals, demand payments or supervise gambling businesses. The move is part of a wider reform intended to improve transparency and increase the amount of revenue reaching the state.

One Ministry Now Holds the Regulatory Mandate

The Ministry of Finance says responsibility for gambling formally shifted away from the Ministry of Sports and Leisure under Ordinance No. 25/293 of December 2025.

That means registration, licensing and the collection of gambling-related duties, taxes and fees now fall under one ministry. The government has also warned businesses not to comply with payment demands or regulatory documents issued by bodies that do not have legal authority.

An iGaming Business report on the reform says the Ministry of Finance has instructed operators to report irregular demands and has tasked the Directorate General of Administrative, Judicial, State Property and Equity Revenues with cancelling improperly issued payment notices.

Centralizing authority addresses a practical business problem. When several agencies appear to claim control over the same sector, companies face higher compliance risk and the state can lose visibility over what is actually being collected.

The Tax Gap Is the Bigger Business Story

The regulatory change is also tied to concerns about public revenue.

Last year, Finance Minister Doudou Fwamba estimated that the country’s online gambling, or iGaming, sector generated around $1.7 billion annually while contributing only about $1 million in taxes. Even allowing for the difficulty of measuring a partly informal market, the contrast helps explain why tax collection has become a government priority.

A September 8 report on the centralization plan notes that the reform covers casinos, sports betting, lotteries, prediction contests and activities delivered through telecommunications and other digital technologies.

The government is therefore bringing digital and physical activity into the same tax and regulatory framework.

Digital Markets Make Revenue Harder to Track

Gambling has become more difficult to supervise as payments, customer accounts and game delivery move online. A physical venue has a fixed location and visible cash flows. A digital service can involve customers, payment providers and technology infrastructure operating across several jurisdictions.

That creates a data problem for tax authorities. They need systems capable of connecting licensed businesses with the payments, wagers and revenues generated through their platforms.

The DRC has already outlined plans for a national monitoring platform intended to give regulators better visibility over the sector. The broader objective is to reduce reliance on self-reported figures and create a clearer picture of taxable activity.

For businesses, stronger monitoring can increase compliance costs, but it can also reduce uncertainty if the rules are applied consistently.

Online Casino Regulation Depends on More Than a Licence

A licence is only one part of digital gambling oversight. Regulators also need to understand how money enters a platform, how customer accounts are verified and how activity is recorded across different products.

A service such as Stake online casino sits inside that broader digital model, where the user sees games and account tools while the regulatory layer depends on payment records, identity controls and transaction data. For governments trying to improve tax collection, the important question is not simply whether an online platform exists, but whether its financial activity can be connected to a licensed entity and measured reliably.

That is why the DRC’s reform increasingly looks like a financial-data project as well as a licensing reform.

Clearer Rules Could Improve the Market

The government says its wider objective is to create legal certainty for businesses, improve player protection, strengthen transparency and protect public revenue.

Those goals will depend on implementation. Centralizing authority does not automatically produce accurate tax data, and a monitoring platform is only useful if operators are required to provide consistent information.

Still, the September clarification removes one source of confusion by establishing which ministry has the final say.

For companies considering the market, that could make compliance more predictable. For the government, the bigger prize is financial. If the state can close even part of the gap between estimated gambling activity and actual tax receipts, the reform could turn a poorly monitored sector into a more meaningful source of public revenue.

The DRC’s latest move is therefore less about expanding gambling than about making an existing market easier to measure, regulate and tax.