Understanding Sierra Leone Gambling Industry

The Republic of Sierra Leone is located in West Africa, boarded by Liberia and Guinea and the Atlantic Ocean. The country has been a British colony from 1808 until its gained independence in 1961. English remains the official language in the country today. However, Krio, an English-based Creole language, is widely spoken.

The country’s population is over 7 million residents. Gambling is legal in all of its variety. The Sierra Leonean gambling legislation is composed of several laws that regulate the gambling activities in the country; among them is the Lotteries Ordinance from 1959, which makes various legal forms of land-based gambling in the country. However, much of online gambling is not regulated within the current Sierra Leonean gambling framework, and the only exception is the online sports betting sector. In this regard, Sierra Leone has been home to several online betting operators licensed under the country’s current laws to provide betting services in the country. Units within the Ministry of Finance do the supervision of the land-based and online gambling activities in the country also functions as an official authorized body for granting licenses for organization and operation of games of chance in Sierra Leone.

Tourism Influence on Casino

Tourism and land-based casino works interchangeably are an exciting uplift for the tourism sector and land-based casino operators in Sierra Leone. In other developing countries, tourism has become the most dynamic and fastest-growing industry. It is an aggregator of many different industries and services. It is influenced by almost every facet of society, making Sierra Leone tourism one of the biggest contributors. In pursuit of the benefits, it is in pursuit of the government’s identified tourism as a priority sector for developments, making tourism and land-based casino a booming sector in Sierra Leone.

Thus, as mentioned above, tourism has become the largest contributor to Sierra Leone’s economy after mining, and agriculture tourism is an important growing national service industry, such as its attraction includes beaches and other natural habitats. The hotel and tourism industry employs about 8,000 people who are tourism-dependent. Simultaneously, the figure will increase considerably in the next three years, with a growing number of jobs expected to be created in the future, according to the International Labour Organization statistics. Statistics show tourists’ arrival of over 39,000,000 in 2018 compared to the 41,000,000, a 4.8% decline from 2016. This drop is due to the ebola outbreak in the country. However, for casino operators who are among the beneficiaries of tourism, several of their operations are carried out in a strategic location for the land-based casino operators, especially in hotels not too far from tourist attraction destinations.

Online casino in Sierra Leone

Online casinos are not explicitly regulated in the country, but brick and mortar casinos are legal. The exact regulations concerning casino establishment interested organization must obtain a gambling license, issued by the National Tourist Board of Sierra Leone. However, the board does not actively supervise casinos. The need for monitoring and regulatory body for casino gambling is being carried out in the Ministry of Finance. There is only one licensed land-based casino operator; the Legoonda casino complex operated by Dubai-based Games World International, which features state of the art slot machines, and traditional games. Yet, residents in the country can play some online casino games on the official betting provider of the country Mercury International. Meanwhile, poker games are a legal part of the offering of land-based casinos. The foreign offshore casino site is easily accessible from Sierra Leone.

Online lottery in Sierra Leone

Like much of the online gambling sector in Sierra Leone is unregulated, there are also no different Sierra Leonean online lottery laws. As there are no online lotteries either, However, there is a long tradition of land-based lotto games in the country. The Sierra Leone state lottery Company (SLSLC) was established under the Companies Act (CAP 249 of the Laws of Sierra Leone, 1960) on the 10th of December 1962 to provide affordable and varied games of chance to the citizens of the country. They currently offer several lotto games on the market, the most popular, which include Mini 5 double and Pick 6/49.

Online Sports betting in Sierra Leone

There are about three sportsbook operators in the country. The Mercury International, a sportsbook licensed by the ministry of finance, is the most popular online sportsbook site in Sierra Leone.

Together with SLSLC are the only two providers offering online sports betting in Sierra Leone. The country’s classic games are local dog races and horse races, and some football betting. It is a fascination to know that Siereleonese are active betting enthusiasts, given the advancement in technology. However, the country has been slow to regulate online gambling, which will get the required attention in distant years due to the penetration of mobile phones.

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