☕️ Ethiopia🇪🇹: bookmakers prepare to resume operations after the sector-wide crackdown

☕️ Ethiopia🇪🇹: bookmakers prepare to resume operations after the sector-wide crackdown

Authorities plan to tighten the regulatory framework.

🟢 Following the shutdown of the sector in December 2025, an audit of the betting and lottery industry was conducted. Preliminary findings reported by Fana Media Corporation put outstanding tax liabilities at approximately USD 185 million, while the amount paid to the state was 10 times lower. Overall, bookmakers processed around USD 1.23 billion. For comparison, the country's current GDP stands at USD 121.5 billion.

🟡 The Ethiopian Lottery Service (ELS) has already announced that it will pursue outstanding debts through the courts. The country also plans to establish a unified digital system for registering and monitoring operators' legal obligations. Operators, in turn, are challenging the measures: Hulu Sport has filed a lawsuit against the ELS seeking to have its block lifted, arguing that bookmakers were not given an opportunity to respond to the allegations. The outcome remains unknown.

🔴 Coordination among the key institutions is also lacking. The Ministry of Culture, the ELS and the Ministry of Revenue are at odds over which body should oversee the sector's regulatory framework. The Ministry of Culture has acknowledged that the industry has not received sufficient attention and has proposed allocating part of betting revenues to sports development. The ELS, meanwhile, continues to delay the introduction of the necessary requirements and procedures, leaving no clear timeline for the sector's return to legal operations.

👀 Context: on December 4, 2025, bookmakers in the country were effectively declared illegal, their licenses were revoked, and company accounts were frozen. The measures followed the discovery of large-scale tax evasion schemes by the National Intelligence and Security Service (NISS). In July 2026, Federal Sports Proclamation No. 1413/2026 was adopted, omitting a provision that had designated betting as a source of funding.

Ethiopia is also renowned for the quality of its coffee.

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