11% Tax on Gaming Revenue and a $223,000 Annual License Fee: Nigeria's Gambling Regulators Want To Expand Operators' KYC and Compliance Oversight

01 November 2026

Published in Gambling Compliance

November 14, 2024. Gambling regulators in Nigeria are pushing for sweeping new customer-identification and compliance measures that could raise costs for sportsbooks and other gaming operators, who are already bracing for hefty new annual license fees.

Slowly, the NLRC is toughening up on Nigeria's gaming operators. Since November, the NLRC has made a series of recommendations around tougher compliance and customer identification (KYC) checks, including new reporting requirements, stricter payment controls, and enhanced customer verification for industry players.

KYC, of course, has always been a key part of gambling regulation - both in Nigeria, and worldwide, for both local and offshore operators. What's new is that this is starting to be implemented more rigorously.

Stricter KYC Requirements

For starters, all Nigerian gaming platforms are being told to conduct stricter Know Your Customer (KYC) checks on their customers, to verify the identity of bettors through requests for government-issued ID documents, proof of address, liveness checks, and biometric verification.

Trading platform SoftSwiss, which provides its proprietary software to Nigerian gambling operators, notes that the KYC process generally includes:

- requesting up-to-date copies of government-issued identity documents (ID, passport, driver's license);

- asking for proof of official address (utility bill, bank statement, driving license or digital verification);

- verifying liveness (checking if the live person holding the camera is the same one shown in a photograph through video selfies or photo identity verification); and

- collecting biometric data (sending a facial scan that is later compared to the photograph on the ID document).

Using personal accounts is explicitly banned. Operators are being told to use a uniform set of corporate payment details that must match their company profile. In future, all payment data must be sent to the regulator within 24 hours, with a countdown to strict enforcement.

Broader Compliance Framework

But KYC measures, of course, are just one part of the wider regulatory picture, with stricter anti-money-laundering and counter-terrorism-financing (AML/CFT) checks also built in:

- The NLRC are also urging gaming companies to register with the Special Control Unit Against Money-Laundering (SCUML) and to set up dedicated AML/CFT compliance procedures, staff, and competent staff training.

- Operators will be required to implement sanction screening processes, politically-exposed person (PEP) checking, and the ability to consistently keep accurate records, before later using those to report suspicious activity.

- The regulator has also suggested there will be regular spot-checks, compliance status updates, and general reviews, as well as checks against massive customer databases for evidence of duplicity.

That's all standard worldwide, but Nigerian operators are already under a different regulatory burden. Last month, the Federal Government announced a raft of new tax treatments and licensing rules for the industry, including:

- a tax on gaming revenue of 11% per year, plus

- an annual licence fee of 100 million Naira per category (that's the equivalent of $223,000 per type of gambling license)

- geo-fencing forecasting and geolocation data must be used to map where and when gambling activity is happening, and reported to regulators

Industry Concerns

For Nigerian online gaming operators, these are tough initiatives to swallow. "Compliance processes need investment in terms of personnel, training, systems, documentation, and time resources; and the regulatory burden in Nigeria's gaming market is becoming heavier," Ngozi Ijeomah, CEO of gaming software development company iStrict, said in a report in THISDAYLIVE.

"Also, because each state has different regulatory requirements, it complicates the matter further", says Mrsay, a Nigerian affiliate-manager, in a separate report in THISDAYLIVE: "Most operators use different KYC procedures; it does not help as it complicates harmonization and creates compliance gaps. We already have so much licensing, taxation, and regulatory requirements from FSGRN rules, SCUML expectations, and state licensing requirements, to accommodate across the board in our compliance programmes. This just adds to it."

The NLRC has not yet said when the tougher KYC and operational requirements will become enforceable. Exactly how useful such a measure will be in deterring money laundering in Nigeria's online gaming sector, which is still largely informal and offshore-based, is unclear.