Ugandan govt will only curb foreign online gamlbing operators

Ugandan Finance Minister Matia Kasaija has clarified reports on a Presidential directive banning the issue of new, and the renewal of, gambling licenses (see previous reports).

Kasaija said only foreign online gambling and sports betting firms will feel the force of the directive as a direct measure preventing operators from “repatriating profits to their mother countries.”

“We’re not banning gaming,” Kasaija told journalists at a press briefing at the Imperial Royal Hotel in Kampala, this week. “We’re saying this activity should be limited to only Ugandans.

“We have said that licensees that are running will not be renewed and new ones will not be issued to foreigners because we’ve discovered so much of our money is being exported through that gaming thing which as far as I am concerned has little value to the economy.

“It ends up by taking our very scarce foreign exchange which we earn through very difficult circumstances like growing coffee and other crops.”

Kasaija emphasised that licensing priority would be given to locally owned companies who can offer a clear plan on how they will contribute to the development of the economy instead of foreign operators who “starve the economy of foreign exchange”.

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