What RG challenges has the retail-to-online casino conversion brought the Nigerian market in recent years?

I think this is a very important part of the responsible gaming (RG) conversation to have, especially currently, as a growing number of people are beginning to take RG more seriously across the continent. It goes without saying that the shift from retail betting to online casino and online gaming more broadly has fundamentally changed what RG looks like. Previously, the fact that people had to visit retail shops to place their bets meant a different approach to RG was needed. But now that accessibility is easier than ever, people have games in their hands 24 hours a day, and there are no longer any of the natural barriers that used to exist with retail locations. This means people can spend far more time gambling, with longer sessions on their phones at a higher betting frequency. With that longer engagement and increased frequency comes more impulsive decision-making, simply because there is nothing stopping players from continuing. 

Another point worth mentioning is speed. Many online games now come with an unprecedented pace – instant games, live casino and rapid betting cycles. The ease with which people can adjust their stakes at any moment leaves vulnerable individuals without any real safeguard, because they can keep playing even when results are not going their way. If operators fail to put safeguards in place, vulnerable players will simply sink deeper into gambling-related harm. We’ve also noticed that, although online access has increased significantly, awareness of safer gambling tools hasn’t kept pace. Some operators, now serving larger online customer bases, have introduced tools such as deposit limits, self-exclusion, cool-off periods and reality checks. Unfortunately, not enough awareness has been built around these tools to ensure they’re actually used. While technology has evolved rapidly, customer education simply hasn’t kept up. 

I’ve spoken about the challenges, but let’s also consider the opportunities this shift presents. While technology has made gambling more accessible, it also gives us the ability to analyse player behaviour in ways that weren’t possible in retail settings. This makes it far easier to identify patterns and say, based on these markers of harm, that a particular person may be heading towards trouble unless an intervention is introduced. 

Have you begun to see increased cross-collaboration between operators and regulators on treatment and RG support in Nigeria?

I know there are people who might disagree with me here, but given where we’ve come from, there have certainly been changes – perhaps not significant enough to celebrate outright, but enough to acknowledge that we’ve moved away from a time when responsible gaming wasn’t a fashionable topic. It used to feel as though operators were actively resistant to the subject, or that regulators simply didn’t view it as a serious conversation worth having.  

In recent years, though, we’ve seen regulators – particularly at state level in Nigeria – bringing stakeholders together, especially gaming operators, to say, “We’re developing a self-exclusion solution; let’s work together on how it can function.” Rather than imposing something on operators, regulators are encouraging them to consider how such measures can be embedded into their own operations. Across the board, this means self-exclusion can work effectively, without someone simply moving from one platform to another because they’ve been locked out of one.

That’s one clear example of the collaboration we’ve seen. Gamble Alert has also, over the past few years, created a platform called the Responsible Gaming Symposium. This is a deliberate initiative to bring all stakeholders into the same room, whether they were actively seeking that conversation or not. Interestingly, we’ve seen genuine engagement from this – this will be the second year the symposium has taken place. What emerges from these conversations are concrete resolutions, with stakeholders agreeing on what they intend to achieve over the following year in terms of improving player protection. 

We’re also now seeing regulators requesting monthly reports on RG activity from gaming operators, which didn’t happen previously. So there has certainly been a level of improvement in collaboration. That said, more still needs to be done. Honestly, at this stage, it remains largely a matter of individual will – political office holders who care about this subject choose to pursue it alongside gaming operators, but it hasn’t yet become a systematic requirement. That’s ultimately where we want to get to.  We want this to move beyond a situation where progress depends on one person in a position of power pushing others to act. Instead, we want it to become standard operating procedure – where you simply cannot obtain a licence, let alone operate, without proper player protection measures in place.  

What is the biggest challenge threatening the long-term sustainability of the Nigerian market?

For me, it’s still the fact that customer acquisition is viewed purely as a revenue stream. There isn’t yet a serious conversation happening around player education. Operators spend significant amounts on marketing to acquire new customers, but comparatively little is invested in educating players so that they can remain active – and stable – over the long term.  

The result is that the entry point into the market is wide, but so too is the exit point. Given Nigeria’s large youth population, when one player leaves a platform, another quickly takes their place. That creates an illusion of activity without any real sustainability. Players come in, engage for a while, and then drop off, largely because so little has been invested in their education. We don’t believe that’s how you build a sustainable business. 

Without loyal, returning customers – people healthy enough in their engagement to genuinely promote your platform to others by saying, “this is entertainment, let’s enjoy it for fun” – you don’t have a sustainable model. I think that’s the single biggest threat we’re currently facing.   

More broadly across Africa, how do you assess the parallel between the rapid market growth and the still-evolving player protection infrastructure?

As we’ve touched on already, the African market continues to prioritise growth above all else. We’re increasingly seeing regulators view the gaming market in Africa as something of a cash cow, recognising that a large proportion of the population is willing to engage with these products. 

This creates a clear imbalance: as growth accelerates, corresponding player protection measures simply aren’t keeping pace. That’s a disaster waiting to happen, because focusing on growth without properly considering player protection is inherently risky. I’m not suggesting that no player protection measures exist at all – rather, that they don’t correspond to the scale of growth we’re seeing. The industry across the continent is expanding faster than player protection frameworks can keep up with, and that is genuinely concerning.  

It often feels like a question of priorities. When regulators consistently place other matters ahead of responsible gambling, that – to me – signals a real problem. That’s the imbalance I see between industry growth and player protection across Africa. We are seeing improvements, but they simply aren’t happening at the same pace as the industry’s expansion, which continues at an extraordinary rate.