Madagascar Moves Toward New Gambling Rules as Bill No. 019/2026 Reaches Parliament
Madagascar has officially filed Bill No. 019/2026 on gambling regulation, while a separate government draft outlines detailed online gambling rules.
Madagascar's National Assembly has officially listed a government-sponsored bill to regulate gambling activities and gaming establishments, marking the country's first substantial legislative move to modernize a gambling framework that dates back decades. The measure, Bill No. 019/2026, was dated 2 June 2026 and is recorded on the Assembly's legislative portal with the status "dépôt officiel" — an official filing with parliament, not a law that has taken effect.
The development has drawn attention from international iGaming trade media in recent days, with several outlets describing it as a sweeping overhaul of Madagascar's gambling sector, including online gambling specifically. That framing captures part of the picture, but understates an important distinction: the most detailed provisions now circulating — including a proposed minimum gambling age, domestic server requirements and a national gambling-data platform — trace to a separate official government document, a draft decree, rather than to a verified copy of the bill's own text.
For an international audience, the practical takeaway is this: Madagascar's government has begun a formal process to replace fragmented, decades-old gambling legislation with a more structured, category-based system that explicitly includes online gambling. That process is underway in parliament and via executive rule-making. It has not concluded, and no new gambling law has yet taken effect.
What Madagascar Has Actually Filed
Bill No. 019/2026 — in full, Projet de loi n° 019/2026 du 02 juin 2026 portant réglementation des activités liées aux jeux d'argent et des établissements de jeux ("Bill No. 019/2026 of 2 June 2026 concerning the regulation of activities related to gambling and gaming establishments") — is listed on the Malagasy National Assembly's legislative portal as a government-originated bill. The Assembly's detailed record shows an official filing date of 16 June 2026, though other index listings on the same portal show later dates in August 2026. Level.casino has not been able to resolve this discrepancy from publicly available records and is not asserting a specific August parliamentary event as confirmed.
What is confirmed is that the bill has been deposited with the National Assembly by the government. It has not been reported as having passed a committee vote, cleared a plenary vote in the Assembly, been reviewed by the Senate, received constitutional clearance, or been promulgated into law.
The Bill and the Decree: Two Separate Documents
Much of the specific regulatory detail attributed to Madagascar's reform in recent reporting — an online gambling category, a proposed minimum age, local server hosting, and a centralized data-monitoring platform — is drawn from a separate official text: a draft implementing decree, referred to in government records as Décret n° 2026-472, published on Madagascar's official legislative portal.
The draft decree explicitly states that it regulates gambling activities, including online gambling, within the framework of Madagascar's existing 1971 gambling law. It sets out detailed categories, authorization procedures and technical requirements. However, Level.casino has not independently verified that the full text of Bill No. 019/2026 itself contains identical provisions, since a complete public copy of the bill was not available for direct comparison. Until the bill's full text is published and verified, readers should treat the decree's provisions as part of the same broader reform effort rather than as confirmed clauses of the bill.
Madagascar's Current Gambling Framework
Madagascar's existing gambling law is rooted in Law No. 71-011 of 30 June 1971, which regulates gaming houses and establishes their tax regime — a framework predating both the internet and mobile payments. Land-based casinos and gaming establishments currently operate under this older statutory architecture, with oversight distributed across ministerial bodies. Casinos are already subject to anti-money laundering obligations under Madagascar's existing AML/CFT framework, supervised by the national financial intelligence unit, SAMIFIN, which has published specific casino supervisory guidance.
Online gambling occupies a comparatively undefined position within this older framework. It is this gap — rather than an outright prohibition — that both the bill and the parallel decree draft appear intended to address.
What the Draft Decree Proposes for Online Gambling
The draft decree defines "jeu d'argent en ligne" (online gambling) as gambling operated online or accessed exclusively through an online public communication service, and places it in a distinct regulatory category — Category 5 — alongside other gambling verticals such as casinos and betting. Among the provisions set out in the draft:
- A requirement for online gambling operators to host servers domestically in Madagascar.
- Connection to a proposed national gambling data-monitoring platform, intended to support administrative and financial oversight, traceability and tax reliability.
- Local corporate incorporation and beneficial-ownership disclosure requirements for operators.
- Measures aimed at preventing access by minors, alongside broader anti-fraud and cybersecurity requirements for gambling technology.
The draft decree also proposes a minimum gambling age of 21, stating that "the legal age for participating in gambling is set at twenty-one years." Level.casino has not been able to independently verify a single, consistent nationwide minimum age under current law prior to this proposal, so this should be read as the age set out in the draft rather than a confirmed increase from a specific existing threshold.
Regulatory Oversight and Licensing
Under the draft decree, Madagascar's Interior Ministry would take on responsibility for issuing gambling authorizations, exercising policing functions over gambling activity, and imposing administrative sanctions. A National Gambling Commission is also contemplated, with its precise structure left to future ministerial order. Each gambling category, including online gambling, would require its own specific authorization — described in the draft as personal, temporary, revocable and non-transferable rather than an open-ended license.
Operators seeking to serve the Malagasy market under this proposed system would need to establish a locally incorporated entity, disclose beneficial ownership in line with AML/CFT rules, and provide supporting documentation to regulators. This points toward a domestically anchored licensing model rather than an offshore hub comparable to jurisdictions such as Malta or Curaçao.
Player Protection and AML Compliance
Beyond the proposed age threshold, the draft decree includes provisions aimed at protecting minors, addressing gambling addiction, and safeguarding players against fraud and technological risk. It would also require gambling establishments to comply with Madagascar's existing AML/CFT legislation and implement controls set by supervisory authorities — reinforcing, rather than introducing from scratch, an AML obligation that already applies to casinos. Madagascar remains under enhanced follow-up monitoring within the ESAAMLG/FATF framework, with a 2025 follow-up report noting continued progress on previously identified technical-compliance gaps.
What Remains Uncertain
Several points remain unresolved based on publicly available official records:
- Whether the full text of Bill No. 019/2026 contains the same detailed provisions found in the draft decree, or whether the two instruments will ultimately diverge.
- The bill's exact procedural history, given inconsistent dates shown across different views of the Assembly's own portal.
- Whether the bill has been assigned to a parliamentary committee or scheduled for a vote.
- The final minimum age, licensing fee structure and technical standards, which the draft decree leaves partly to future implementing orders.
Potential Implications for the iGaming Industry
The following is analysis of what the proposed framework could mean if adopted substantially in its current form — not a description of enacted policy.
Operators. If the domestic server-hosting and local-incorporation requirements outlined in the draft decree are carried into final law, international operators would likely be unable to serve Malagasy players on the basis of an offshore license alone. Compliance would instead depend on local corporate structuring, beneficial-ownership disclosure and direct integration with domestic oversight systems — a meaningfully higher operational bar than an open licensing regime.
Affiliates and publishers. The official material reviewed does not establish that gambling affiliates or comparison sites would themselves require a license under the proposed framework. Level.casino is not asserting that they would. Depending on how the final rules treat third-party marketing, however, operators could face liability for affiliate promotion of unlicensed platforms — a pattern seen in other regulated markets and worth monitoring as the bill progresses.
Technology and compliance vendors. If enacted, requirements around KYC, age verification, AML monitoring, domestic data hosting and player-protection systems could generate demand for compliance technology tailored to the Malagasy market specifically, rather than repurposed from broader international licensing frameworks.
Madagascar in a Wider African Context
Madagascar's proposed direction sits within a broader, uneven pattern across Sub-Saharan Africa, where jurisdictions such as Kenya and Nigeria have moved toward more formalized licensing of gambling and betting activity in recent years, often combined with mobile-centric payment models and tax-collection objectives. Madagascar's draft framework — with its emphasis on domestic infrastructure, centralized data monitoring and a state-led authorization model — appears particularly focused on administrative control and traceability rather than on positioning the country as an international licensing hub. This should be read as contextual analysis rather than a claim that Madagascar is following any single regional template.
What Happens Next
Bill No. 019/2026 remains at the official filing stage before Madagascar's National Assembly. Before taking legal effect, the bill would need to complete the remaining stages of Madagascar's legislative and constitutional process, followed by promulgation where required. Level.casino has not confirmed that these steps have yet occurred. The parallel draft decree, which contains the more detailed online gambling provisions, would similarly need to be finalized through Madagascar's executive rule-making process.
Level.casino will continue monitoring both instruments as they move through Madagascar's legislative and regulatory process and will update this report as the bill's full text, committee status and final provisions become publicly available.
