History of gambling in Malawi
Malawi, officially the Republic of Malawi (formerly known as Nyasaland) is a landlocked country located in southeast Africa. It shares borders with Zambia to the northwest, Tanzania to the northeast, and Mozambique to the south, east and west. Bantu groups first settled the area around the 10th century.
The British conquered and colonized the territory in the late 19th century. It was during this time the British introduced the informal form of gambling to the Maravi Empire the region remained a colony until 1964 when it gained independence from the United Kingdom.
Although gambling became official in the Gaming Act of 1996, the Gaming Act of 1996 gave birth to the establishment of the Malawi Gaming Board is mandated with the responsibilities of issuing the license and oversee any form of gambling operations. The National Lotteries Board then controlled the country national lottery. In the year 2001, the government realized the similarities between (MGB) and (NLB) and a merger were necessitated, which now form the Malawi Gaming Board and Lotteries Authority (MAGLA). The functions are issuing gaming and lottery license, carrying out inspections of gaming machines and games to ensure fairness in gambling activities from payment of winnings as specified and without delay.
Malawi Gaming Board and Lotteries Authority
However, there are over five license casinos in Malawi in which players can take advantage, the City of Lilongwe play host to the most exciting casinos in the country.
Though, while late last year the state plans to expand its sports betting license which is now in its pilot stage of lunching new betting companies. It is expected that by 2020 the sports betting business in the country will boom. Indeed, some of the shortcomings of Malawi gambling sector is the online gambling, still it is not regulated and in they’re no laws that prohibit online gambling in Malawi, so players are free to wager on offshore online platforms and the economy performance of the country will experience growth as part of country National plan to improve the country economy sector also it is expected that all African member state benefit from the AFCTA deal by the end of 2020.
Article by Adeleye Awakan
Associate/Editor www.gbc.ng Africa’s digital gaming news portal. For consultant, Bookmaker’s review, Content, thoughtful leadership article Africa gambling industry: feel free to reach me [email protected], Linkedin Adeleye Awakan.
