Online Casinos in Uganda

The Legal Position

Online casino play is licensed in Uganda, and it is licensed inside the ordinary casino licence rather than by a separate online permission. The regulator is the National Lotteries and Gaming Regulatory Board, which describes itself as "a corporate body mandated to regulate and oversee lotteries, gaming, and betting" and states that it was "Established under the Lotteries and Gaming Act No. 7 of 2016". Its site still sits at lgrb.go.ug, from its earlier name, the Lotteries and Gaming Regulatory Board.

On the Board's own Categories of Licenses page, the entry for the Casino Operating License defines casino operations as "a private club, or a room in a club, hotel, or other establishment, where gambling takes place or place where people gamble by playing card games, roulette or slot machines", and then adds: "This includes virtual or online platforms where a person may participate in a game approved by the Board." Licensing casinos is one of the Board's listed statutory functions, as is approving "games that may be made available for casinos lotteries, gaming, betting and casinos" and approving "devices or equipment for lotteries, gaming, betting and casinos".

Which Licence Covers What

The Board publishes ten licence categories, and the online line is drawn deliberately in each:

• Casino Operating License — includes virtual or online platforms.
• General Betting License — "covers online and land-based sports betting operations", so online betting is not a casino licence.
• Bingo Operating License — "includes remote bingo, online bingo and facilities for providing bingo".
• Gambling Software License — "covers persons providing software used remotely or directly in connection with gaming or betting".
• Machine General Operating/Slot Machine License — "does not apply to any games offered online".

The remaining categories are the National Lottery License, the Public Lottery License, promotional competitions, pool betting and a licence to manufacture, supply and install gaming equipment.

Checking a Licence

The Board publishes a list of licensed companies for each year on its own site, the current one being the List of Licensed Companies For the Year 2026, and runs an e-licensing portal and a machines register. You can read it yourself at lgrb.go.ug/licensed-companies. Those lists are where a player in Uganda can confirm that an operator holds a licence from the Board.

Enforcement Against Unlicensed Sites

The Board describes a settled process for unlicensed online gambling: "the regulator identifies illegal betting sites, the Uganda Communications Commission issues a directive, and operators comply by blocking access". In August 2026 its chief executive, Denis Mudene Ngabirano, told a stakeholder engagement with telecom operators and internet service providers at the Uganda Communications Commission that "Blocking illegal gaming websites is important, but we must go further. Telecom operators can become ambassadors for responsible gaming."

Player Protection

The Board is mandated "to protect members of the public from the adverse effects of gaming and betting including the promotion of transparency and accountability", and runs a Responsible Gaming Program that it describes as "a set of activities that integrates treatment and counseling, public awareness, education, training and research on gambling and problem gambling". It publishes a toll-free helpline — "If you or someone you know is struggling with gambling-related problems, contact our toll-free helpline 0800285800" — and names the Ministry of Health, Butabika Referral Hospital, the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Gender, Labour and Social Development, bank institutions and Gamecare among its support partners. It also runs its own self-exclusion application, on which a player sets an exclusion period or chooses permanent exclusion, names the operators to be excluded from, and may consent to be assigned a counsellor. The Board states it conducted research in 2023 "on the socioeconomic and health effects of gambling and drivers of problem gambling in Uganda".

Public Revenue

The Board reports that it regulates the industry "to maximize its contributions to national development, with UGX 193 billion collected in FY 2023/24 alone".

Sweepstakes Casinos

Sweepstakes casinos are a different product from real-money online casinos and are never a licensed alternative to one. No Ugandan source read for this page addresses the dual-currency sweepstakes model, so the sweepstakes position for Uganda is recorded as not researched rather than asserted either way.