The African iGaming industry is growing fast, but payment compliance has become one of the most contested battlegrounds across the continent. As regulatory bodies tighten their grip on mobile money APIs, a new challenge has emerged: automated Peer-to-Peer (P2P) aggregators that unregulated offshore platforms are using to sidestep tax collection entirely.
These shadow P2P networks allow illegal operators to dominate sports betting and casino markets in Kenya, Ghana, and Nigeria while avoiding the financial oversight required of licensed operators. The result is an uneven playing field that costs African governments significant tax revenue and undermines years of regulatory progress.
In regulated markets, players deposit funds through official corporate merchant portals, such as Safaricom's M-Pesa C2B in Kenya or MTN MoMo in Nigeria. These APIs give tax authorities and regulators real-time visibility into deposits, wagers, and withdrawals.
Unregulated operators have found a way around this. Using automated P2P mobile money scripts, they mimic standard person-to-person transfers by managing large pools of SIM cards registered to private individuals. Because these transactions look identical to one person sending money to another, traditional automated compliance filters cannot flag them.
The three largest iGaming markets on the continent have each modernized their gambling laws to capture revenue from the sector, but shadow P2P networks are undermining those efforts.
In Kenya, where a 15% betting tax and 20% excise duty on bets apply, automated P2P scripts mask the 12.5% withholding tax on winnings. In Ghana, automated P2P transfers bypass the Ghana Revenue Authority's centralized oversight entirely, circumventing the 10% withholding tax on gaming winnings. In Nigeria, where federal and state licensing overlap creates complexity, shadow operators use personal fintech wallets to evade the National Lottery Regulatory Commission.
The broader context matters here. As covered in Africa iGaming 2026: M&A, Mobile Money and iGB L!VE Summits, mobile money infrastructure is central to how Africa's iGaming market is being structured, making the integrity of that infrastructure a regulatory priority across the continent.
Legal operators are not standing still. Several technology-led strategies are being deployed to protect compliant payment funnels.
Regulated operators are working closely with payment providers to integrate single-click STK push notifications for secure transactions, preventing third-party top-ups from automated P2P scripts. Many also require the phone number used during registration to match the depositing wallet.
In markets with complex payment infrastructure like Nigeria, some operators are moving away from digital wallets entirely, adopting unified open banking APIs that provide direct bank-to-bank transaction feeds, eliminating the P2P loophole at the source.
Machine learning tools are also being deployed to flag suspicious behavioural patterns, such as recent SIM swaps or instant cashouts following a win. Licensed operators are also sharing data directly with telecommunications companies to help identify the mule accounts that form the backbone of automated P2P networks.
The same AI-driven detection logic being applied to payment fraud mirrors what regulators are demanding more broadly across the industry. As explored in AI and Responsible Gambling: A 2026 Compliance Analysis, regulators across multiple jurisdictions are now requiring operators to demonstrate proactive, real-time risk detection rather than retrospective reporting.
The battle for Africa's iGaming payment infrastructure is intensifying. Unregulated operators will continue to adapt their P2P methods as detection improves, and the pressure on regulators to close the legal gaps that allow them to operate will grow alongside the market itself.
The operators best positioned to hold their ground are those investing now in localised, compliant payment infrastructure that can withstand both regulatory scrutiny and the technical pressure of shadow competitors. The market belongs to whoever controls the payment stream.
