Yes - online betting is legal and now formally regulated in the Republic of the Congo (Congo-Brazzaville). After a legal vacuum of roughly three decades, Law No. 37-2024 of 11 October 2024 (published in the official journal in late 2024) established a framework for games of chance and betting, covering sports betting, casinos, lotteries, horse racing and virtual games. Crucially for players, the law states that online gaming offers must adhere to the same conditions as physical operators, so licensed online betting is permitted under state oversight. Note that this is a smaller market with limited published detail, and some specifics - notably the exact tax on player winnings - are not clearly documented in authoritative sources.

Yes. Law 37-2024 governs the creation, establishment, regulation and taxation of gambling, and brings online gaming explicitly within scope. The state retains a strong role: the national gambling company holds exclusive rights over horse-race betting, lotteries and scratch games, while private operators can be licensed for sports betting, casinos and virtual games. Do not confuse this with the neighbouring Democratic Republic of the Congo (Kinshasa), which has an entirely separate legal system and regulator.

The Regulator and Licensing

Oversight sits with the ministry responsible for gambling, alongside the Ministry of Finance, Budget and Public Portfolio. Law 37-2024 sets out licence categories spanning sports betting and casinos; horse racing, lotteries and scratch games; physical casinos; and virtual games and slot machines. A separate law approved by Parliament provides for a dedicated gambling regulatory authority - a public body with legal personality and financial autonomy - to oversee the sector, combat money laundering and contribute to state revenue; that authority was still being stood up in 2026. Location rules also apply, with casinos expected to be sited in designated venues and kept away from sensitive locations such as schools.

Licensed vs Offshore Sites

Because the framework is new, enforcement capacity is still maturing and many Congolese bettors have historically used internationally facing sites. Licensed and locally established operators include the state lottery vehicle COGELO (Congolaise de Gestion de Loterie), plus sports-betting brands such as CongoBet and Premier Bet, and PariPesa, which launched in Congo-Brazzaville in 2026. Prefer operators that clearly operate under the domestic regime, as they fall under local consumer-protection and anti-money-laundering rules; purely offshore sites give you no local recourse.

Payments: Mobile Money and Crypto

Mobile money is the dominant deposit method. MTN Mobile Money (MoMo) and Airtel Money are widely integrated by operators; PariPesa, for example, launched with both and set deposit and withdrawal thresholds in the low hundreds of CFA francs (XAF). Cryptocurrency, by contrast, is not an officially supported rail. Under the regional CEMAC/BEAC framework, the banking regulator COBAC barred banks, microfinance institutions and payment-service providers in 2022 from facilitating crypto transactions, and crypto is not recognised as legal tender. You may find offshore sites that accept crypto, but you would be transacting in an unregulated space with no local protection.

Taxes on Winnings

Here the public record is thin. Law 37-2024 provides that gambling is taxed through the annual finance law on gross gaming revenue, with online operators taxed at higher rates than land-based ones. However, a specific, officially published withholding rate on players’ winnings in Congo-Brazzaville was not confirmed in authoritative sources at the time of writing. If tax treatment matters to you, verify against the current finance law or a qualified local adviser rather than relying on secondary figures.

Safer Gambling

Law 37-2024 frames player protection - including preventing underage gambling, curbing addiction and combating money laundering - as a core objective. No dedicated national gambling helpline was identified in authoritative sources. If gambling stops being fun, set deposit and time limits, take a break, and seek support from a trusted medical professional or community organisation. Only gamble with money you can afford to lose.

18+ only. Gambling should be entertainment, not a way to make money. If it stops being fun, stop.

Sources