In November 2024, the Supreme Court of Nigeria issued a ruling that transferred gambling regulatory authority from the federal government to the states, ending a 16-year legal dispute. The Lagos State government had initiated the lawsuit in 2008, seeking clarification on which level of government should regulate the gambling industry under the 36-state federal system. The court ruled that "lotteries" are considered a "residual matter" in Nigerian law, not included among the 68 items exclusively legislated by the federal parliament, thus the National Lottery Act was repealed. According to the PASA official website, this ruling is described as a "constitutional earthquake," but 18 months later, the legislative pace of the states remains uneven, with religious factors and the legal status of online gambling still unresolved issues.
Market Background: $1.6 billion GGR, Football Betting Still Dominates
Data from H2 Gambling Capital shows that the total gross gaming revenue of the Nigerian gambling industry is expected to reach nearly $1.6 billion in 2025. Football betting dominates the sports betting sector in this football-crazed country, mainly focusing on the English Premier League (with several Nigerian players), the Champions League, and some local events. Bet9ja and SportyBet have built a large user base through mobile apps and strong advertising. However, according to a report by Premium Times on May 28, football betting is increasingly facing competition from online casinos—after the cost of mobile internet access decreased and payment systems improved, slot machines, live dealers, and crash games appeared right next to sports betting apps, with operators increasingly treating casino games as an "additional entertainment layer" rather than a separate category.
Classification of 36 States: Complete Ban in Sharia Law States
Odunayo Ibitoye from Lagos Templars law firm categorized the 36 states into four groups: those with gambling laws (23 states + FCT), those with unclear laws (5), completely banned Sharia law states (9), and the Federal Capital Territory where the capital Abuja is located. Lagos, Anambra, Delta, and other 10 states had their own regulatory frameworks before the Supreme Court's ruling, with Lagos immediately exercising its exclusive regulatory authority through the Lagos State Lottery and Gaming Authority (LSLGA) after the ruling. Osun State quickly passed the Lottery and Gaming Act in November 2024 and established a state-level gaming commission. However, 9 northern Muslim states—including Adamawa, Kano, Sokoto, Zamfara—follow Islamic law and do not allow lottery and gambling activities. Although Kano State has revenue provisions, enforcement practices cause actual restrictions. Abuja, without specific legislation, has the FCT Lottery Regulatory Office (FCT-LRO) responsible for issuing licenses.
FSGRN Mutual Recognition Framework: One License for 22 States, Online Only
About 22 states formed the Nigerian State-Level Gaming Regulatory Association (FSGRN), which launched a sub-national reciprocal licensing framework in May 2025—operators obtaining a "Universal Reciprocal Certificate" (URC) can legally operate in all FSGRN member states. Adewumi Salami, legal director at DLA Piper Africa, commented that FSGRN's centralized single-window approach "greatly reduces what could have been a licensing nightmare in all 36 states." FSGRN also waived the 2025 license fees for operators transitioning from the National Lottery Regulatory Commission to the FSGRN framework. However, Ibitoye noted that the framework currently only applies to online gambling licenses, and offline gambling operations still require repetitive licensing processes according to state laws. During the transition period from November 2024 to May 2025 before the framework was formalized, many operators operated with NLRC licenses, in a legal gray area.
Online Gambling: An Unresolved Constitutional Dilemma
Salami frankly stated that although the Supreme Court's ruling resolved the issue of offline lotteries, the constitutional position of online gambling remains unanswered. "A player from Kano State accessing a licensed platform in Lagos, this kind of online interstate gambling still belongs to a legal gray area," he told iGB. Each state theoretically has jurisdiction over its residents, and FSGRN's URC framework is a pragmatic solution, but it does not have legal force in non-member states. Data from the Pew Research Center shows that as of November 2025, Muslims account for 56.1% of Nigeria's population, while Christians make up 43.4%; from 2010 to 2020, the Muslim population grew by 32% to 120 million, and Christians by 25% to 93 million. The legal vacuum in northern Muslim states, combined with the constitutional ambiguity of online gambling's interstate operations, presents considerable compliance challenges for operators seeking national coverage.
————
This article is from "PASA-Global iGaming Leaders," a gambling industry news channel: https://t.me/pasa_news
Original in-depth gambling channel: https://t.me/gamblingdeep
Free data reports: @pasa_research
PASA Matrix: @pasa002_bot
PASA official website: https://www.pasa.news
