Online Casinos in Ethiopia – Regulated gambling activities
Contents
Nowadays it has become a pretty hard task to find a nation in Africa where a gambling-related atmosphere is safe and secure enough to play without any worries. But fortunately, still, there are some countries where gambling activities are regulated. One of these few countries on the African continent where gambling activities are legal is Ethiopia. The country is widely known for every player from around the world who actively takes part in gambling because there you have a guarantee of finding a reputable online casino that will give you plenty of opportunities to satisfy your needs without any concern. Gamblers can enjoy various activities and make bets both in the land-based casinos, as well as play freely in the best online casino sites in Ethiopia. Therefore, the online gambling industry in this country is so attractive not only for the locals but also for players outside the country.
Gambling in Ethiopia is legal and regulated by authoritative gambling regulators. Not only land-based casinos but online gambling here is also safe as well and is provided by international online gambling websites. However, if there are so many laws regarding physical gambling in Ethiopia, there are no kinds of laws about online casinos. Of course, it’s not really a problem for the locals, because they can enjoy various activities using many amazing websites from other parts of the world, while local online websites are usually used as offshore gambling destinations by citizens from other countries. But the major regulator of the country, the National Lottery Administration (NLA) has some influence over online gambling as well and provides certain licenses from time to time regarding certain types of games and activities.
Best Ethiopia-based Online Casinos
CookieCasino
Minimum deposit
$10
Reputation
10/10
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100%
Games
9/10
Year founded
2020
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Woo Casino
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€20
Reputation
9/10
Bonus
100%
Games
10/10
Year founded
2020
Live Chat
Yes
BetChan
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€/$20
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9/10
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100%
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Year founded
2015
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Casino Gods
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10/10
Bonus
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10/10
Year founded
2019
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No
NYSpins Casino
Minimum deposit
$10
Reputation
9/10
Bonus
10/10
Games
9/10
Year founded
1997
Live Chat
Yes
Voodoo Dreams
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9/10
Bonus
8/10
Games
7/10
Year founded
2016
Live Chat
No
Nomini Casino
Minimum deposit
$10
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9/10
Bonus
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Games
10/10
Year founded
2019
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Yes
PlayOJO
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10/10
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10/10
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2017
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Yes
Energy Casino
Minimum deposit
$10
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9/10
Bonus
10/10
Games
8/10
Year founded
2013
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Yes
Overview
The Ethiopian gambling market is certainly thriving nowadays. Situated in western Africa, Ethiopia is a land-locked country that is surrounded by small African nations where gambling is not a really popular industry. But in Ethiopia history of gambling is really long and interesting. In fact, Ethiopia is one of the world’s oldest countries with a pretty complicated history. It has been invaded and occupied by other countries a couple of times and as a result, general laws in the country had been changing according to the new conqueror.
The country has been governed by fascist Italy for so long, but in 1961 things finally changed for gamblers in the country. It was the time when the National Lottery Administration was founded by proclamation #183. From this time the regulator has been operating effectively, serving the country to provide lottery and some other kinds of games. But years later, in 1981 the NLA became the leading Ethiopian gambling regulator and started to control, regulate, and task all gambling-related activities in the country. Today it’s an authorized regulator with permission to organize games such as poker, casino games, video poker, bingo, billiards, slots machines, and so on. The NLA has the power to make new laws, apply changes, and withdraw permits. They also have the responsibility to collect licensing fees.
However, despite the regulations, gambling is legal is considered mostly legal in Ethiopia and especially in some forms of land-based casinos. But of course, not everything s governed by this authoritative regulator, and some activities are not regulated. Among them are online sports betting, online lottery, and some other types of activities. This is why sometimes citizens of Ethiopia or everybody interested to take part in the online gambling market of the country are concerned about the gambling landscape in this country. For this reason, we decided to provide you with a detailed review of online gambling in this country.
Popular Ethiopian online casinos
Online casino gambling in Ethiopia can be regarded as an unstoppable force. There are so many online gambling websites in this country that are close to ideal. The service they offer is so attractive for people all over the world, as they provide tons of exciting and high-quality casino games, amazing bonus offers, generous welcome offers, and many great services. Not only do the players have the opportunity to enjoy various slots games, but also they can play new and all versions of blackjack, roulette, baccarat, and other table s, take part in sports betting or bingo, and spend time productively while gambling online on Ethiopian websites. Therefore you will definitely find something suitable for you, but in order not to get lost in this huge selection of online casinos while trying to find the best one, we will try to explain some important details about the gambling atmosphere in this country.
It’s not a hard task to play casino games for real money in Ethiopia as the majority of online gambling sites offer their services for Ethiopian players and give them opportunities to enjoy the best possible service in the online gambling industry and play slot machines, table games and many more. Due to the lack of land-based casinos, online gambling is becoming more and more popular in this country, as players have a diverse choice of activities while gambling online. Specifically, the only establishment that offers a casino in Ethiopia is the Ghion Hotel in Addis Ababa, and therefore, the majority of locals usually prefer to take part in the iGaming industry which fills them with the sensation of excitement in the process of playing casino games virtually.
How to choose the best online casino?
However, needless to say, that not all the online gambling websites in this country are reliable and it’s important to be careful before you take a step and start online gambling in Ethiopia. There have been cases of frauds and identity thefts by some scammer websites and this is why you should try to avoid encountering such kinds of messy websites and play responsibly using reputable ones. For helping you to choose the best online casino, we can divide the online gambling websites of Ethiopia into three groups.
- Casinos are in the first group are the best and the most authoritative ones that provide the perfect service, the maximum number of excellent games, and generous welcome bonuses.
- In the second group, you can find average Ethiopian casinos that are still pretty good but have a limited set of games provided by just a few software providers. Their bonus offers are not so diverse but you can still find several great deals.
- You should be careful of the casinos in the third group and try to avoid this type of Ethiopia online casinos because it’s a group of the most suspicious websites with no licenses at all and gambling there is usually dangerous for your own safety.
As you can see, choosing the best online casino is not an easy task and even experienced players can get confused sometimes. This is why you should be careful especially if you are a newbie and check the licenses, game providers, accepted currencies, and all the suspicious things about the features of a given online casino before you start playing. Although the gambling-related situation in Ethiopia is usually safer than in other African countries when it comes to online gambling, you need to pay more attention than usual. So, we recommend checking the bottom part of every single website, no matter it’s located in Ethiopia or another country, and think twice before creating an account and starting to play casino games online.
How gambling works in Ethiopia
To understand the gambling landscape of Ethiopia, it’s important to talk a little bit about the special characteristics of the country which makes it different and unique from other nations in Africa. Firsts of all, one of the most important things to discuss is the internet penetration rate. Obviously, to become an online casino user, you must have an access to the internet. However, when it comes to African countries, sometimes the situation is difficult. Most of the little African nations hardly have an access to the proper internet. But in Ethiopia, the situation is not as bad as in other countries such as Cameroon or Uganda. Here, according to the latest statistics, the internet penetration rate is about 16% but the country plans to expand access throughout Ethiopia.
As we’ve already mentioned, gambling, in general, is considered legal, but when it comes to online gambling in Ethiopia things are a little bit different. The leading regulator, the National Lottery Administration has the power to rule the physical gambling activities in the country, like horse racing, different types of lotteries, and other kinds of game changes. However, the Ethiopian gaming industry isn’t only shaped by the land-based casinos but there are lots of online betting platforms that play a vital role in determining the gambling market of the country. Even more, although the economy is mainly based on agriculture, nowadays there can be seen a tendency of gambling taking a great part in the rise of the economy. This is why the government is attempting to take further steps and increase the viability of the internet to its citizens. For this, they plan to privatize the telecom sector and as a result, in the next few years, the improvement of the online gambling sector of Ethiopia is predicted.
Famous gambling activities in Ethiopia
Players all over the world have plenty of opportunities to play casino games for real money in Ethiopia. There are so many popular gambling-related activities in the country that usually attract thousands of players across the world. Among them are different kinds of lottery, sports betting, bingo, poker, and many other types of casino games. First of all, the country is widely considered as one of the best places that you can find to take part in the lottery. Games of chance in this country are so popular and even more, it’s considered as a home place to some of them. For example, the most popular national sports activity is called Senterej. It’s a type of chess, traditionally played in Ethiopia but this game is not only about knowing the techniques and rules of chess but is more like a game of chance which makes sit different from classic chess.
But the lottery has truly an outstanding place for the Ethiopian players. Recently the number of players taking part in the lottery has increased even more on the best casino sites to play on in Ethiopia, but it always has been the most attractive activity for locals. Nowadays lottery is legal and is the most popular form of gambling in the country. As you can see from its name, it is run by the leading regulator, the National Lottery Administration, and currently, the most commonly known lottery games in Ethiopia are the Medebenga, the Edil, Leyou lottery, Tombola, LOTTO, and a number of few others.
Another popular game is poker. Players in Ethiopia are fond of both traditional and digitized versions of poker which is currently legalized in the country. It’s most likely regulated by the same gambling laws as lottery and other casino games. Although sometimes poker is not considered as a gambling part because it’s not really a game of chance, the regulator decided to include playing cards among the list of the games that are regulated with official laws and orders.
This is why some players prefer to engage in other forms of gambling activities like Ethiopian online slots. But still, it’s hard to imagine that poker will ever lose popularity among the Ethiopian people. Therefore, every poker operator in the country has to obtain permission before they start to provide service. Currently, there are no poker halls or online poker sites in Ethiopia but still, some casual games are available and also, players from Ethiopia can easily access international online poker sites.
General Ethiopian gambling regulation
It’s important to understand the laws and regulations that apply to the Ethiopian gambling market to play safely and ensure that you have the best experience possible while playing online or enjoying physical activities in the land-based casinos. This is why we recommend taking a closer look at the Ethiopian gambling laws. So, if you want to find out more about the online gambling legislation in this country, as well as some important facts, keep reading our article to find answers to the most concerning issues of online gambling in Ethiopia.
Now probably you already know that most of the regulations are provided by the NLA which is quite an authoritative and reputable regulator which is widely known in the whole continent. It has a monopoly all over the gambling industry in Ethiopia and therefore, the right to issues licenses to both online and offline casinos, as well as collect taxes, solve any gambling-related issues, take part in overcoming problem gambling. What they try to do is to maintain a stable situation for the citizens of Ethiopia and take precautions to avoid gambling-related problems. They try hard to push Ethiopian players towards responsible gambling and make the law that will avoid money losses and other common problems.
However, not even this stable atmosphere turned out to be enough for spreading gambling all over the country. Despite the legal framework and the chances to easily find the best paying online casinos in Ethiopia, gambling is not as widespread here as in the other parts of the world and the reason is clear, as Ethiopia is not in the least of the world’s most developed countries. Apart from casual games, there are not so many possibilities to gamble in the land-based casinos of Ethiopia. However, gamblers have found a way to satisfy their needs and they usually take part in games on the internet as no laws are restricting online gambling within the country. But the main reason for this is the increased rate of internet penetration in the country compared to the previous years.
Needless to say that having a strong regulator doesn’t;t mean that country doesn’t have any gambling-related problems. The NLA has been frequently accused of licensing multi-level marketing-style companies that don’t usually offer real chances to win. The administration has faced tons of accusations of corruption and ineptitude. In fact, many land-based casinos that have licenses from the Ethiopia gambling regulator have been poorly operating, offering law-quality service for the customers, but it’s not clear whether we can count it as corruption or not. However, as the NLA tries to make new regulations and take a control of the market more carefully, hopefully, the situation will change soon.
Responsible gambling in Ethiopia
As there number of online casinos increases in the world, it becomes harder and harder to control their actions, detect the scammers, and protect your citizens from losing funds. Providing responsible gambling has been a problem in recent years for Ethiopia as well. The main reason for this is that the Ethiopian online casinos usually provide wonderful services which are attractive for gamblers all over the world. As a result, players from countries where gambling online is restricted often choose to take part in gambling-related activities and use Ethiopian websites as offshore gambling destinations. This sometimes makes things complicated, because making transactions using cryptos is not necessarily restricted in Ethiopia.
There’s nothing said about Bitcoin gambling in the Ethiopian laws and players don’t have information about the legality of the cryptocurrencies on Ethiopian casino websites. Therefore, foreign players often make transactions using bitcoin to hide their private information and it has become hard for the government to detect their identity when something suspicious happens. This is why Ethiopian players often try to stick to foreign operators who have a solid reputation and are known for providing high-quality service to take care of themselves and cash out the funds effectively from online casino slots in Ethiopia. But it doesn’t mean that the government doesn’t take care of its citizens. They usually check the websites from time to time, try to reveal suspicious ones among them and provide their citizens with details about these cases. Also, they try their best to avoid problems regarding gambling addiction. As the internet has become available for many people in Ethiopia than before, the number of times spent in front of the computers taking part in the services of online casinos has dramatically risen. Therefore, the risks of getting addicted to gambling and developing various health-related problems are higher today.
Still, there are many reputable online websites in Ethiopia and it’s up to players to choose wisely and ensure their safety. But don’t forget to follow the regulations and recommendations of the National Lottery Organization to make sure that you have the best possible experience while gambling online.
How we rate Ethiopian online casinos
Now we will try to explain the ways to decide whether a local casino actually deserves your time and energy and whether it is reputable enough to spend money on. Once you open a new website, the first thing you should do is to check their license. For this, you have to scroll down at the end of the website and find the information about the license. For example, the Malta Gambling Authority is the most reputable regulator and you can eventually trust the websites supported by them. But nowadays there are many different operators on the internet and it’s hard to remember all of the reputable ones. So, even if you see that the online casino has a license, you should consider other factors as well.
In particular, keep an eye on the customer service that should be available 24/7 because you may have some questions and if there will be no one to provide answers, you may encounter some problems. The websites in the Ethiopian online casinos’ list usually have generous welcome bonus offers and other excellent promotions, a wide choice of excellent games, multiple languages available and also, quick payments, and an effective banking system. So, what we recommend is to keep all these details in mind and remember that finding an online casino in Ethiopia with amazing service is already a real opportunity for every player today.
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