According to the general director of the Institute of Gaming Supervision (ISJ), Paulo Ringote, who spoke at the opening of the presentation ceremony of the "Panorama of the Gaming Sector in Angola 2023", the gaming market last year had a positive performance, which translated into gross revenue of 37 billion kwanzas.
"The gaming sector is growing, we think it is consolidating", said Paulo Ringote, stressing that for many years there was "little dialogue, little rapport", which has been changing in the last three years, "hearing more operators, better accommodating their concerns, for example tax issues".
Paulo Ringote said that tax rates were high, but in the last three years they had been reduced, allowing for "encouraging numbers" for the sector.
The results achieved in 2023, according to Paulo Ringote, were fundamentally due to the extension of the activity to more provinces, mainly social games, which for many years were confined to Luanda, and greater supervision.
The official highlighted that the next five years will be "very challenging" and the new law on gaming activities will bring more organization to the sector, structural changes that will allow an increase in operators, mainly in territorial sports betting, the area that contributes most for revenue collection.
There are 23 operators in the Angolan gambling market, of which ten are in games of chance, three in territorial sports betting and ten in online games.
According to Paulo Ringote, from the end of this year, lottery games will be reintroduced, with the concession contract for the winner of the public tender held by the State being negotiated.
For the person responsible, in the coming years "the gaming sector should contribute amounts in kwanzas equivalent to 100 million dollars".
In turn, the president of the Games Association, Henrique Doroteia, said that, although it has existed for around 20 years, the sector has only started to develop now, arguing that it needs to be scaled up.
"The sector cannot grow forever, the sector has an end. A large casino will soon open here in Luanda, with capacity for hundreds and hundreds of customers per day, this casino will lead to the disappearance of other casinos that exist, this is a example", he said.
Henrique Doroteia, who is also president of the executive committee of ACK Games, defended the need to continue reducing taxes charged by the State, considering that even with the reduction to 18 percent or 20 percent "it is still an exaggeration".
"The tax in Angola cannot exceed around 12 percent, because it is a very large burden for operators and does not become profitable. There is not only the Special Gaming Tax, but there is another that is paid daily on each table, each machine that works, on the players' prizes. In these indirect charges alone we have around 8 percent to 10 percent, which means – until the approval of the law [under discussion in the National Assembly] – that it is around 25 percent more 10 percent, which is 35 percent", he described.
Henrique Doroteia highlighted that the association managed to increase the tax from 45 percent two years ago to the current 25 percent, with a reduction expected to 18 percent or 20 percent, however, it will continue to fight to get it down to around 12 percent, because "nowhere in the world are there taxes of this amount on gambling, only Angola invented this".
The sector employs close to 6000 people, of which 1703 have administrative and operational/store jobs and 4177 are game mediators.
