New Responsible Gaming Network Launches Across 11 African Countries

Responsible gaming organisations and specialists from 11 African countries have launched a new continental network aimed at improving player protection, coordinating gambling-harm research and expanding access to treatment and support.

The African Responsible Gaming Network (ARGN) has officially launched as a new pan-African platform bringing together organisations, researchers, treatment specialists, advocates and industry stakeholders working to reduce gambling-related harm.

The network includes representatives from South Africa, Nigeria, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Kenya, Malawi, Botswana, Namibia, Cameroon, Uganda and Eswatini, alongside support from partners outside Africa, including Austria. Founding organisations include Gamble Aware Nigeria, Gamble Pause Initiative Africa and the South African Responsible Gambling Foundation.

Lebo Seoheng, Advocacy and Communications Manager at the South African Responsible Gambling Foundation, has been appointed the first president of ARGN. The network says its formation reflects the rapid expansion of online and sports betting across Africa and the need for player-protection systems to develop alongside the market.

ARGN has identified four main priorities. It plans to develop a continent-wide evidence base on gambling harm, create a directory of treatment and recovery services, prepare policy recommendations for regulators and governments, and coordinate prevention and awareness campaigns across multiple African markets.

The treatment directory could become particularly important because access to specialist support differs considerably between countries. The network wants to map existing counselling, treatment and recovery services while identifying markets where players currently have few options for professional help.

ARGN is not proposing a single gambling law for Africa. Founding members argue that national markets differ too widely in legislation, regulatory development and local conditions for one identical framework to work everywhere. Instead, the group wants to promote common principles such as effective age and identity verification, self-exclusion systems, responsible advertising standards and access to treatment.

The organisation also stresses that it will not replace national gambling regulators or existing responsible gaming bodies. Its role will be to connect organisations that have largely worked independently, allowing them to share research, compare approaches and develop joint responses to problems that increasingly cross national borders.

The launch follows the first Africa Safer Gambling Week, held from September 7 to 11, which brought regulators and industry organisations together around player protection and public awareness under the #PlaySafeAfrica campaign.

For Africa's gambling industry, ARGN represents another step toward treating player protection as a continental issue rather than a collection of separate national initiatives. Its impact will now depend on whether the network can turn shared research and principles into practical standards, stronger treatment infrastructure and measures that regulators and operators can apply in individual markets.