Cameroon

Cameroon's online-gambling regime saw two material developments this cycle against an otherwise unchanged licensing backdrop. All online-gambling payment flows now route exclusively through a single MINAT-designated aggregator, INTOUCH Cameroun, following a January 2025 directive, and a new 3 percent digital tax reaches unlicensed offshore platforms with significant economic presence from January 2026. The underlying authorisation statute (Law No. 2015/012 and Decree No. 2019/2300/PM) remains untouched. Together the payments centralisation and the new offshore tax represent a tightening of the operating environment even though the formal licensing gateway is unchanged, justifying an amber posture for this cycle.

Operating any money game in Cameroon requires falling under one of three statutory regimes set by Law n° 2015/012: concession (casinos, betting, public lotteries), authorisation (online and commercial games) and declaration (private lotteries). Online operation specifically requires ministerial authorisation, with the ARJ supervising day-to-day. Operating an online gaming activity without authorisation is a criminal offence punishable by 6 months–2 years imprisonment and/or a fine of CFA 5–25 million. Operators must be locally incorporated, hold a .cm domain and (for online) post a CFA 200 million bank guarantee. Licences run 5 years (online) and 10 years (land-based) and are non-transferable. No distinct B2B supplier licence class is established.

MTN Mobile Money (~50% penetration) and Orange Money are the dominant gambling funding channels, but since 30 January 2025 all online gambling payments must route exclusively through the InTouch aggregator. No exchange controls restrict cash transfer in or out of Cameroon. FATF grey-listing requires operators and PSPs to apply enhanced due diligence to Cameroon-connected flows; ANIF is the national FIU receiving STRs and pre-launch activity statements, with COBAC as regional banking supervisor and GABAC the CEMAC AML body.

The 15 March 2026 large-taxpayer filing deadline passed for foreign betting and casino platforms to comply with the new three percent digital tax established under the 2026 Finance Law. This is a fiscal-enforcement checkpoint rather than a gambling-licensing enforcement action, and it establishes the first observable compliance cadence under the significant-economic-presence tax regime introduced. The instrument behind this checkpoint is the Finance Law itself, administered through the Directorate General of Taxes rather than through the Ministry of Territorial Administration or the gaming regulator, so it runs on a separate track from the standing licensing gateway. No gambling-licensing enforcement action, revocation, or sanction was identified; the enforcement signal here is specifically about a dated fiscal-compliance deadline having passed for offshore digital gambling platforms, marking the point at which the new tax obligation moved from statutory text into an active, observable administrative cadence.

The dominant regulatory development is the continuing FATF grey listing (since June 2023, reaffirmed February 2026) signalling systemic AML deficiencies that will constrain banking and PSP relationships until resolved. The 2015 Law gives Cameroon a structural advantage over many regional peers, but ministerial volatility (February 2025 deposit ban) and the new InTouch single-aggregator mandate add operational risk. No significant liberalising or restrictive legislative reform is in train; the trajectory is incremental AML compliance improvement under FATF pressure.