Online Casinos in Côte d'Ivoire

The Legal Position

Online casino play is a regulated segment of the Ivorian market, and the regulator says so on its own site rather than leaving it to be inferred. The governing statute is loi n° 2020-480 du 27 mai 2020 portant régime juridique des jeux de hasard en Côte d'Ivoire, published by both the regulator and the state operator, with two implementing decrees of 6 December 2023 — décret n° 2023-945 on the games conceded to the national lottery and décret n° 2023-946 on the games subject to authorisation. The statute and the decrees are published as PDFs and no sentence of the legislation itself is quoted on this page; every legal proposition below comes from a page on which the regulator or a ministry states it, with the article number that page gives.

The Autorité de Régulation des Jeux de Hasard (ARJH), organised by décret n° 2021-301 du 16 juin 2021, describes its mission, citing articles 24 and 25 of the 2020 law, as overseeing the implementation of gambling regulation. Its listed duties include checking compliance with the law and with the obligations arising from authorisations or agreements in force; "de surveiller le secteur des jeux de hasard", supervising the gambling sector; informing and educating operators and players about responsible gambling; "d' exercer une surveillance des opérations de jeu ou pari en ligne", exercising surveillance over online gaming or betting operations; and "de participer à la lutte contre les sites illégaux et la fraude", taking part in the fight against illegal sites and fraud. Articles 26, 27 and 31 to 33 give it formal notice, interim-measure and sanction powers, with appeal to the Conseil d'État.

Two Regimes, and Which One Online Casino Sits In

The ARJH's "Offres de jeux" page sets out "tous les segments de jeux autorisés en Côte d'Ivoire". It divides them in two. Under Régime de la concession it lists national lotteries, instant games, number games, horse betting, sports betting, "Les jeux en ligne", "Les jeux de casino en ligne", "Les machines à sous en ligne", scratch games and virtual games. Under Régime de l'autorisation it lists advertising or promotional lotteries, lotteries of movable objects, "Les jeux de casino physique" and "Les machines à sous physiques".

That placement is the single most important fact on this page. Online casino games and online slots are authorised in Côte d'Ivoire, but they are conceded, not competitively licensed — the concession regime is the Loterie Nationale de Côte d'Ivoire's, and that is the Authority's own classification rather than an inference. LONACI runs the online casino offer itself: its Casino Cash page describes a product that "rassemble machines à sous, jeux de table classiques, live casino avec croupiers en direct et divertissements instantanés", and its own exclusion page names "www.lonacionline.ci" as the platform a player accesses with a player account.

One tension on the regulator's own site is worth stating plainly rather than tidying away. The ARJH publishes a "Liste des opérateurs agrées de jeux en ligne / Paris sportifs", a register of approved online gaming and sports betting operators, alongside a separate list of licensed physical casinos. Its operator FAQ, however, answers that online sports betting has been conceded to LONACI and "ne sont pas soumis à la concurrence" — is not subject to competition. Both statements are the Authority's own; this page reports them both and resolves neither.

Minimum Age

Two figures apply, and the difference matters for a casino page. The ARJH states that "Selon l'article 59 de la loi N°2020-480 du 27 mai 2020 portant régime juridique des jeux de hasard, l'âge légal pour participer aux jeux de hasard est fixé à 18 ans révolus." The same passage continues: "Toutefois, ne peuvent accéder aux casinos et établissements de machines à sous que les personnes âgées de 21 ans révolus." LONACI's responsible gambling policy applies the same split by product rather than by venue, setting 18 for lotteries, horse betting, sports betting and virtual events, and 21 for "Les jeux de casino et machines à sous, quels que soient le canal" — casino games and slot machines, whatever the channel. So the general gambling age is 18, and the age for casino and slot play, online included, is 21.

Illegal Offers

The Authority defines the other side of the line for players: "Le jeu illégal désigne les activités de paris, lotéries ou casinos qui se déroulent en dehors du cadre légal et réglementaire imposé par l'Etat." The scale of the problem the 2020 reform was built to address is recorded by the Ministry of Finance and Budget, which stated when the bill passed the Senate that "il a été identifié, au niveau des paris sportifs, plus de cinq cents (500) sites internet proposant des jeux en ligne accessibles depuis la Côte d'Ivoire sans autorisation" — more than five hundred internet sites offering online games reachable from Côte d'Ivoire without authorisation. The Ministry also recorded that the institutional answer chosen was "la mise en place d'un cadre institutionnel constitué, essentiellement, par une autorité de régulation des jeux de hasard", and that the statutes being replaced dated from 1970: "la loi n°70-208 du 20 mars 1970 portant création de la Loterie Nationale de Côte d'Ivoire et de la loi n°70-575 du 29 septembre 1970 portant interdiction des loteries".

Enforcement machinery has since been added. The ARJH records that the Council of Ministers of 29 April 2026 adopted a decree creating the Unité de Surveillance du Secteur des Jeux de Hasard (USSJH), setting out its creation, powers, composition and functioning.

Exclusion and Player Protection

There are two separate exclusion routes. The ARJH holds a gambling exclusion register: "Toute personne peut faire l'objet d'une interdiction de jeux suite à une décision de l'ARJH ou une décision de justice." A player may also ask the Authority for a voluntary exclusion, the effect of which includes being barred "d'accéder à un site de jeux en ligne agrée par la LONACI", and which "est valable pour une durée de trois (3) ans minimum".

LONACI runs shorter, operator-level tools on its own platform: self-exclusion for a duration the player chooses "de 24 h à 12 mois maximum", and voluntary limits on visits, amounts and payment methods. Its responsible gambling policy also requires "Mention explicite de l'interdiction aux mineurs sur tous les supports de jeu (tickets, sites internet, bulletins)."

No Ivorian problem-gambling helpline is printed on this page. The only free national number published on LONACI's help page is 143, which the page itself describes as "le numéro vert national pour formuler vos suggestions, préoccupations ou réclamations" and attributes to the health ministry. That is a general public-health line, not a gambling service, and a number that is not a gambling helpline should not be printed as one.