Uganda 
Nowhere in Uganda's gambling statute is there a sentence setting the minimum betting age at 25. The number arrives by a different route. Section 2 of the Lotteries and Gaming Act, 2016 defines its terms, and among them: “minor” means a person below twenty five years. Every protection the Act then writes for minors — the payment ban, the premises ban, the notice duty, the offences — moves up with that definition, and Uganda ends up with a 25 threshold without ever legislating one directly.
Where the number actually sits
This matters because it changes what the rule is attached to. A statutory minimum age can be amended on its own. A definition cannot be touched without moving every clause that depends on it, and in this Act the word “minor” also governs unenforceable debts and the licensee's duty of care. Any proposal to drop Uganda to 18 is a proposal to redefine a minor as someone under 18 for gambling purposes, which is a larger piece of drafting than it sounds.
It also explains why the rule is sometimes misreported as a 2019 change. The definition was in the Act as passed in 2016. What happened later was enforcement and licensing policy, not a new age.
One wrinkle, stated plainly because it affects what you should cite. The Board's own general-information page describes the offence of permitting a minor — “a person under the age of 25” — as arising under a “Gambling Act, 2018”, while describing itself as established under the Lotteries and Gaming Act No. 7 of 2016. The provision quoted throughout this article is the one we could read in the 2016 Act, which is the Act the Board's own 2026 licence notice is issued under. Where the two differ, the statute is the better source.
What a licensee is forbidden to do, and what it costs
Section 57 is short and absolute. A licensee shall not accept payments from a minor. A licensee shall not accept a minor to access or enter into a casino or gaming and betting premises. A licensee or agent who does either — and the subsection says explicitly that it applies whether done personally, by mail, by electronic means or otherwise — commits an offence and is liable on conviction to a fine not exceeding one thousand currency points, or imprisonment for a term not exceeding four years, or both.
Schedule 1 fixes one currency point at twenty thousand shillings. One thousand currency points is therefore UGX 20,000,000, alongside the prison exposure. The words “by electronic means” are what carry section 57 onto a betting app: an online account opened by a 22-year-old is the same offence as letting them through the door of a shop.
Section 58 extends it outward. An adult who subscribes to a public lottery on behalf of a minor commits an offence carrying the same maximum. Section 59 requires the licensee or agent to display a notice that minors are prohibited from entering a public lottery, in a conspicuous place where entries are accepted.
What the Act does not do
Read sections 57 to 59 together and the striking thing is who is not in them. The duty sits on the licensee and its agents, and on an adult acting for someone under 25. There is no offence in this part committed by the under-25 who places the bet. The Act regulates the business, not the customer.
That is a limitation as much as a protection. The rule only reaches operators the Act can reach. A site with no Ugandan licence is not following section 57 because it is not subject to it, and nothing in Part IX gives a Ugandan punter a remedy against one.
Who is actually bound by it in 2026
Section 42(8) requires the Board to gazette licences issued and applications rejected, and the National Lotteries and Gaming Regulatory Board publishes the result as a notice of issuance of licences. The list for 2026 carries 68 operators holding 101 separate licences, with a trade name, a website where there is one, a licence type, a mode of operation and a licence number against each.
| Licence type | Number issued |
|---|---|
| General Betting Operating Licence | 44 |
| Gaming or Betting Machine General Operating Licence | 22 |
| Casino Operating Licence | 21 |
| Gambling Software Operating Licence | 11 |
| Bingo Operating Licence | 3 |
| Total | 101 |
Fifty-eight of the 101 are issued for online operation and 43 for land-based, so the online side of the Ugandan market is now the larger one on the regulator's own count. Licence numbers follow a readable pattern — NLGRB-BM-26-0206 is a general betting licence, NLGRB-CS-26-0222 a casino one, NLGRB-SL-26-0197 a gambling software one — with the two digits after the type marking the licence year. A number with a different year on a 2026 site is worth a second look.
The practical use of that list is narrow but real: it is the document that tells you whether the operator asking for your date of birth is one that commits an offence by getting the answer wrong. Our Uganda betting sites guide covers how the operators we track handle the check at the cashier.
Three numbers that are not the same number
Uganda has a 20 and two 15s floating around its gambling coverage, and they are regularly swapped for each other.
- Schedule 4 of the Act sets gaming tax at twenty percent of the total amount staked less the payouts, for the filing period. That is a tax on the operator's margin, not on your slip.
- Payouts attract 15% under Income Tax Act (withholding on payments for winnings of betting), withheld by the licensed promoter before it pays the winner, and the Uganda Revenue Authority treats it as a final tax — you do not declare it again.
- URA also records that withholding tax on games was removed with effect from 1 July 2023, which is a different thing from the tax on winnings and is the usual source of the confusion.
The 25-year threshold and the 15 percent are frequently quoted in the same breath as though one explains the other. They come from different statutes and do different work: one is a licensing duty under the Lotteries and Gaming Act, the other an income tax collected at source.
If the rule is the only thing standing between you and a bet
A threshold set seven years above legal adulthood is a blunt instrument, and the people it binds hardest are the ones most likely to look for a way around it. Nothing on this site will help with that. If betting has stopped being optional for you, our responsible gambling page and our help page list what we have been able to verify.
Questions
Does the Lotteries and Gaming Act set a minimum betting age of 25?
Not in those words. Section 2 defines a minor as a person below twenty five years, and sections 57 to 59 then prohibit a licensee from taking payment from, or admitting, a minor. The effect is a 25 threshold, reached through the definition rather than through an age clause.
What happens to a licensee that accepts a bet from a 22-year-old?
Section 57(3) makes it an offence, committed whether the bet is taken in person, by mail or by electronic means. The maximum on conviction is a fine of one thousand currency points — UGX 20,000,000 at the Schedule 1 rate of twenty thousand shillings per point — or imprisonment up to four years, or both.
Is the under-25 who places the bet committing an offence?
Part IX of the Act places the duty on the licensee and its agents, and separately on an adult who subscribes to a public lottery for a minor. It creates no offence for the minor who bets.
Sources
- The Lotteries and Gaming Act, 2016 (Act 7 of 2016), published by the Uganda Business Licensing Portal at businesslicences.go.ug — section 2 definition of “minor”, sections 42(8) and 57 to 59, Schedule 1 currency point, Schedule 4 rate of tax. Read 1 October 2026.
- National Lotteries and Gaming Regulatory Board, Notice of Issuance of Licences under section 42(8), Licensed Operators for 2026, lgrb.go.ug — 68 operators, 101 licences, counted by type and mode of operation. Read 1 October 2026.
- Uganda Revenue Authority, gaming and sports betting guidance, ura.go.ug — chargeable income at twenty percent, fifteen percent withheld from payouts as a final tax by the licensed promoter, and the removal of withholding tax on games from 1 July 2023. Read 1 October 2026.
Correction, 1 October 2026. An earlier version of this article said the threshold was raised from 18 to 25 through licensing amendments in 2019, and described registration checks at named operators that we had no record of. The definition is in the Act as passed in 2016, and the operator descriptions have been removed.
