Gambling regulators from South Africa, Nigeria, Mauritius, Uganda and Rwanda will begin drafting a framework for cross-border cooperation at a workshop in Rome on November 5.
The Gaming Regulators Africa Forum (GRAF) and SiGMA will host the session at Fiera Roma during SiGMA World Rome. Delegates will produce an initial text, the Rome Working Draft, Version 0.1. The workshop builds on discussions at the GRAF Regulatory Forum during SiGMA Africa 2026 in Cape Town in March.
The proposed framework is intended to support practical collaboration not to create a single set of gambling laws for the continent. Delegates will consider ways to share information, conduct joint investigations and coordinate enforcement against illegal and cross-border operators.
Each country will retain control of its own legislation. Participants in Cape Town concluded that coordinated licensing across Africa would be difficult to achieve in the near term, while shared principles, faster information exchange and joint enforcement were more achievable.
Delegates will split into five facilitated groups to develop recommendations on:
- Information-sharing protocols
- Legal and institutional arrangements
- Operational enforcement cooperation
- Capacity building and knowledge exchange
- Communication and stakeholder engagement
Each group will consider how its proposals could work in practice and report back to a plenary session. GRAF will then consolidate the results into the draft framework. Bonga Mngoma, Programme Director and Executive for Transformation and Economic Development at South Africa’s KwaZulu-Natal Economic Regulatory Authority, will open the session alongside GRAF President Mabutho Zwane.
Zoé Siwa, Chief Financial Officer of the Western Cape Gambling and Racing Board, will moderate a panel on cross-border gambling and illegal markets. Mngoma and Siwa will also facilitate the working groups. The African iGaming Alliance and iGaming Academy will be represented, with a keynote address from Jaime Debono of iGaming Academy.
Operators licensed in multiple African markets typically deal with regulators that do not routinely share case information. A formal channel for cooperation could help regulators pass findings between jurisdictions more quickly. Enforcement is already taking place at the national level.
Uganda has blocked illegal sites and destroyed seized machines, while South Africa’s North West Gambling Board has called for more technology-led regulation. A shared framework could help connect these efforts. The workshop is part of the wider SiGMA World Rome programme, which runs from November 2 to 5.
GRAF promotes collaboration among gambling regulatory authorities across Africa. It is convening the workshop and will consolidate the resulting recommendations into a draft framework. It is the initial version of a written framework for cooperation among African gambling regulators. Drafting will begin at the November 5 workshop.
The proposed framework is intended to improve cooperation while allowing each country to retain its own gambling laws. Senior representatives from regulators in South Africa, Nigeria, Mauritius, Uganda and Rwanda are expected to participate. The draft will address information sharing, legal and institutional arrangements, operational enforcement cooperation, capacity building, knowledge exchange, and communication with stakeholders.
