True Grit

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Botswana’s parliament published the measure as the Gambling (Amendment) Bill, 2026, Bill No. 15 of 2026.

Botswana’s existing gambling framework sets the legal gambling age at 21. The amendment bill would align that threshold with the country’s general age of majority, which is 18.

Supporters of the change argued that people aged 18 to 20 are already treated as adults in many areas of civic and economic life, and that retaining a separate gambling threshold of 21 could push some towards unlicensed sites.

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“The time was right to reassess this crucial policy area, focusing on the topic of gambling advertising where the former committee’s strong recommendations have been largely unaddressed and where substantial developments in the gambling advertising landscape since 2020 have demanded a re-evaluation of the policy options,” he said.

The committee has advocated for applying a public health framework to gambling advertising regulation. It criticised the existing patchwork of self-regulation, noting the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) codes, co-regulation for broadcasts and industry-led voluntary measures, were inadequate.

Instead, the report recommended that advertising regulation be placed on a statutory footing under the Gambling Commission. 

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Under Section 106 of New Zealand’s Gambling Act 2003, a class 4 licence holder, also known as a “corporate society” by the regulator, “must apply or distribute the net proceeds from class 4 gambling only to or for an authorised purpose specified in the corporate society’s licence”.

The DIA worked directly with class 4 gambling operators (commonly known as pokies trusts), and discovered ‘widespread issues’ such as cases where money that should have been available for community grants was instead spent on society expenses, such as the purchase of additional gaming machines.

Vicki Scott, the DIA’s director of gambling, said the investigation had delivered significant results, while stressing that work to improve compliance and ensure communities received their share of gambling proceeds would continue.