Plunderin Pirates

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The Ministry of Finance of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has reaffirmed it holds sole authority to oversee the nation’s gambling sector.

In a press release dated 27 August, the DRC’s Ministry of Finance reminded gambling operators that Ordinance No. 25/293 formally transferred responsibility for regulating the sector from the Ministry of Sports and Leisure to its own remit.

In the Ministry of Finance’s view, this ended “any institutional ambiguity” over who should oversee the DRC’s gambling industry.

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Parliament is now considering two competing approaches to online gambling. But neither has produced a licensing framework.

A private members’ bill, 2026/009, was put forward on 20 January by 23 deputies and referred to the General Legislation Committee on 29 January. It would amend the 1974 decree-law to prohibit all online gambling and require internet and payment providers to block it.

MP Yasser Gourari, one of the deputies promoting the measure, told Diwan FM that the bill provides for fines of MAD10,000 to MAD500,000 and prison terms of one to five years. Penalties rise where there is recidivism, involvement of minors or suspicion of money laundering.

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The report utilised various methods to estimate the size and scale of Europe’s black market, including web traffic, digital marketing, macros data and regulations in place across the 28 markets surveyed.

Helios, a specialist consultant in gambling web traffic, analysed the number of black market websites actively marketing across the 28 markets included in the report, between March and May.

This data was cross referenced with SimilarWeb traffic analysis to confirm the scale of activity. In some markets, the number of illegal sites being actively marketed was much higher than those that have local licences to operate.