Licensing and regulation: Can we get a licence?

Three licence classes are now confirmed under Côte d'Ivoire's gambling framework, all deriving from the 6 and 7 December 2023 Council of Ministers decrees implementing Law 2020-480. The LONACI concession covers jeux concédés — lotteries, sports betting, horse-race betting, and virtual betting — and is held exclusively by LONACI, which is 85% state-owned. The ARJH authorisation regime covers promotional and charitable lotteries, and a separate ARJH licensing track covers casino gaming and slot machines. These decrees carry the durability of an implementing instrument under primary legislation, giving the licensing structure a reasonably durable statutory basis. Within this structure, authorisation-issuance, renewal, and withdrawal power for the ARJH track was transferred from joint ministerial control to ARJH's sole competence by the December 2023 decree, a change LONACI's leadership has publicly framed as strengthening the regime's capacity to act against illegal operators. This consolidation is itself set by decree rather than by the enabling Act, giving it a comparatively fragile durability relative to the underlying statutory framework.