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The Law Reform Commission of Tanzania (LRCT) is reviewing a host of legal changes to help the country achieve its National Development Vision 2050, including looking at the impact of land-based gambling on young people.
LRCT executive secretary George Mandepo told TBC Community Radio on July 28 that a review is already underway to address “a significant decline in morals” among young people engaging in activities that are not productive for the nation, such as gambling and smoking.
“Issues concerning ethics that are in criminal justice and civil justice, the commission has already begun the process of reviewing laws that affect gambling to see how it protects the rights of the child. You find a child leaving school, going to gambling dens to 'bet', a situation that causes them to lack ethics,” Mandepo said.
Changes related to land-based gambling will likely focus on tackling underage participation, with potential for more restrictions on the placement of gambling businesses, advertising limits or more stringent KYC checks.
However, drastic changes could contradict the government's desire to increase revenue collection from its growing gambling industry.
Tanzania’s National Development Vision 2050 was first published in December 2024, outlining the country’s key objectives as “achieving socio-economic development on par with, or exceeding, that of upper-middle income economies”.
Additionally, more recently, the Minister of Finance Mwigulu Nchemba, whose department is a key stakeholder implementing the country’s 2050 vision, outlined a series of changes to the gambling industry in his 2025-2026 budget speech on June 12.
The changes, which were included in the Finance Act 2025 and enacted on June 30, 2025, include a 10 percent withholding tax on commission payments arising from gaming advertisements.
It also included an increase to the winning tax rate on sports betting from 10 percent to 15 percent and on land-based casino games from 12 percent to 15 percent.
Reviewing the 2024-2025 budget implementation, Nchemba told the National Assembly on June 16 that the gambling industry generated TS$17.42bn ($6.79m) in revenue for the government, short of its predicted TS$24.89bn.
Despite the shortfall, Nchemba has set the gambling industry the target of generating TS$29.89bn in 2025-2026.
One potential recent change that could assist the industry was the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) announcement on June 13 that the country had been removed from its greylist of jurisdictions under increased monitoring.
