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The government blocked 548,420 illegal betting and gambling websites between 2006 and 2025, including 84,000 in 2025 alone.
These comments echo a similar sentiment emphasised at the country’s Directorate of Communications panel event on illegal betting and addiction on 10 September. Deputy Minister of Interior Ali Çelik suggested that curbing addiction would lead to a decrease in illegal betting activity.
Çelik said: “If we can eliminate this sector, we will also minimise the funds flowing into the hands of the next criminal organisation.”
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The Ministry of Finance of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has reaffirmed it holds sole authority to oversee the nation’s gambling sector.
In a press release dated 27 August, the DRC’s Ministry of Finance reminded gambling operators that Ordinance No. 25/293 formally transferred responsibility for regulating the sector from the Ministry of Sports and Leisure to its own remit.
In the Ministry of Finance’s view, this ended “any institutional ambiguity” over who should oversee the DRC’s gambling industry.
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An issue raised by Giannis Vasiliadis, director of WBAS, was the limited access to recipients’ banking information. This limited data can hint at suspicious activity but cannot conclusively verify gambling transactions.
Data Protection Commissioner Maria Christofidou said her office had reevaluated a 2022 legal opinion and now recognised a potential legal basis for more granular access to banking information.
Various MPs voiced concerns about the risk of privacy violations in accessing this data, and the potential social stigma around the information being shared.
