Gabon's new gambling monopoly yet to name licensed operators
Seven months after applications closed, state-owned operator GDJ has not published which betting firms, if any, are authorised to operate in Gabon under its overhauled gambling regime.
Gabon's state gambling company, Gaming and Betting of Gabon (GDJ), has not disclosed the results of a licensing process that closed more than seven months ago, leaving the Central African country's betting market without a public list of approved operators.
Under a notice signed by GDJ director general Roméo Nguema Ondo, every prior gambling authorisation, licence and declaration in Gabon lost its validity on 7 April 2026. Private operators were told to apply afresh for approval under GDJ oversight.
The company had opened applications in February, setting a 2 March deadline and pledging what it called a "transparent, fair and rigorous selection process" to find operators with the technical, financial and organisational standing to qualify. Applicants also had to show compliance with safeguards against underage access, excessive gambling, money laundering and security failures, according to iGaming Business.
No outcome has followed. GDJ has not confirmed which, if any, businesses were approved, nor published the fees, licence conditions or revenue-sharing terms that would govern their operation. It remains possible that some operators are working under private or transitional arrangements, but no public record confirms this either way.
Gabon first folded online betting into formal regulation through Ordinance 0012/PR/2020, later ratified with amendments in February 2021, which placed online operators in a third licensing category subject to renewable five-year declarations. A 2022 decree then capped the national market at five online operators for a three-year period.
The current overhaul dates to 29 December 2025, when Gabon's Council of Ministers approved a new legal framework formalised in two ordinances, 0010/PR/2025 and 0011/PR/2025, dated the following day. The reform scrapped the country's former gambling commission and its technical secretariat, replacing them with GDJ, a state-owned entity tasked with both running gambling activity and supervising the operators within it.
That dual role drew scrutiny from lawmakers during 2026 hearings. Then-interior minister Adrien Nguema Mba told a Senate committee in June that internal controls would keep GDJ's oversight functions separate from its commercial operations. He described the restructuring as a "sovereign choice, guided by the urgency of a total reappropriation of this sector" and pointed to plans for 2,000 points of sale spread across Gabon's nine provinces, saying GDJ would deliver "what until now escaped the state: the complete traceability of financial flows".
GDJ's board held its first meeting on 7 August, where it signed off on a strategic plan, budgets and internal rules. Public documentation has not yet detailed how the company intends to firewall its commercial interests from its regulatory responsibilities.
Gabon Media Time reported in May 2025 that the contract to centralise gambling payment flows went to eTech SAS without a competitive tender, prompting complaints from local technology firms that said they had been shut out of the process. The then-interior minister, Hermann Immongault, rejected the criticism, telling l'Union: "I will not enter into polemics. The state is sovereign. The state has decided to have this operator." He maintained the arrangement was legal, transparent and structured as a public-private partnership that would eventually see eTech become fully state-owned.
Immongault also set out the state's rationale for seeking tighter control of payments, arguing that operators previously self-reported turnover and paid an 8% tax under what he called an outdated system.
A separate Gabon Media Time report from June 2026 said payments company Paymetrust had reached its own deal with GDJ to oversee and centralise online betting transactions through a system tied into banking and mobile-money networks, though GDJ has not clarified how that arrangement sits alongside eTech's existing payments mandate.
Also in June, l'Union reported that operators were still waiting for finalised licences, operating contracts and technical specifications. Industry sources cited by the newspaper raised concerns about separate licensing requirements for each activity and site, rising costs on cash deposits and withdrawals, delays in paying out winnings, and difficulty reconciling accounts, with one estimate putting monthly deductions at around 30% of turnover.
Gabon's initial 2026 Finance Law had forecast CFA1.24 billion ($2.1 million) in tax revenue from games of chance, a figure that gives no indication of the fees or commercial terms applied to individual operators.
The reform is pitched as a route to stronger state oversight, cleaner financial tracing and higher public revenue, but its real impact cannot be assessed until GDJ publishes the results of its selection process, names any approved operators and discloses the financial terms attached to their participation.