Nigeria’s indigenous gaming industry, which supports more than 200,000 jobs and generates billions of naira in local value, faces an existential threat from the proposed Central Gaming Bill currently before the Senate for concurrence, according to experts.
The bill, which reportedly passed quietly through the House of Representatives earlier this year, seeks to grant the Federal Government sweeping powers over gaming regulation, including a Remote Gaming Licence that would allow offshore operators to provide online betting services nationwide without maintaining any physical presence in the country.
Industry stakeholders have described the move as economically destructive and constitutionally unsound, warning that it would dismantle a thriving domestic sector built over a decade of local innovation, tax compliance, and employment creation.
Gaming journalist, Adetola Ladejobi, said the proposed framework “could effectively destroy Nigeria’s indigenous gaming ecosystem and wipe out over 200,000 jobs nationwide.”
“This Bill is not reform, it’s regression. The Remote Gaming Licence would allow foreign companies to extract money from Nigerian players without employing a single Nigerian or paying a single naira in local taxes,” Ladejobi warned.
“It is difficult to reconcile such a policy with President Bola Tinubu’s Renewed Hope Agenda, which is anchored on attracting investment, creating jobs, and strengthening local industries,” he added.
Nigeria’s gaming sector has grown into one of the country’s most dynamic non-oil industries, with homegrown brands such as Bet9ja, Baba Ijebu, 1xBet, BetKing, and Winners Golden Chance leading the market. These operators, Ladejobi explained, collectively employ agents, software developers, customer-service representatives, payment processors, and small business owners across all 36 states; sustaining families and injecting steady tax revenue into state economies.
However, under the proposed Remote Gaming Licence, foreign companies would be permitted to operate virtually, with no local offices, no Nigerian employees, and no tax obligations.
“What this bill proposes is a digital drain on the economy. These companies would sit offshore, collect bets from Nigerian players, and repatriate profits abroad. That’s not investment, that’s extraction,” Ladejobi argued.
Beyond the economic implications, the bill, he insisted, also contravenes the Supreme Court’s landmark judgment of November 2024, which affirmed that gaming and betting fall under the jurisdiction of state governments, not the federal government.
According to Ladejobi, “This bill directly undermines the Supreme Court’s ruling and violates the federal structure of our Constitution. It attempts to centralise control in an area that clearly belongs to the states.”
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He argued that the attempt to override state gaming authorities, many of which already operate modern digital compliance systems, risks creating constitutional tension and administrative chaos.
He said across major federations such as the United States, Canada, and Switzerland, gaming regulation remains a subnational function. Each state or province governs betting within its borders, often collaborating through inter-state mechanisms without surrendering authority.
Switzerland’s model, for instance, he said, is managed through the Gespa (Inter-Cantonal Gaming Authority), which coordinates among cantons while preserving local regulatory autonomy. Nigeria’s own Federation of State Gaming Regulators of Nigeria (FSGRN) already mirrors this approach by facilitating inter-state cooperation, online monitoring, and harmonised compliance frameworks.
“If advanced economies like the U.S. and Switzerland can preserve decentralised gaming oversight in the digital era, there’s no reason Nigeria should move in the opposite direction,” Ladejobi asserted.
Proponents of the Central Gaming Bill claim that remote gaming will “modernise” the sector, but Ladejobi dismissed that argument as misleading.
“Every online gaming transaction can already be traced using IP addresses and geolocation data, making it easy to determine where bets occur. States have the technology and capacity to regulate online gaming within their jurisdictions. There’s no vacuum to fill, only a constitutional boundary to respect,” he explained.
He warned that if passed in its current form, the Central Gaming Bill could trigger massive job losses and revenue decline across the country. Thousands of gaming agents and small business owners, he noted, could lose their livelihoods, while states would face reduced internally generated revenue (IGR).
“This is one of the few sectors that has managed to balance innovation, employment, and revenue generation without federal subsidies. To hand it over to offshore operators is to trade jobs for illusions,” Ladejobi cautioned.
He urged the Senate to review the bill thoroughly and prioritise the country’s economic interests over external lobbying or misguided centralisation.
“The future of Nigeria’s gaming industry lies in cooperative federalism, where states collaborate, not compete, to create unified but locally managed regulation. Legislating away local authority in the name of modernisation is a mistake that could take years to reverse,” he concluded.