Online casinos and betting in Botswana

Is online gambling legal in Botswana?

The Gambling Act 2012 set up the Gambling Authority, which licenses casinos, sports betting and lotteries. Sports betting is clearly a licensed activity, and local operators such as Betway Botswana hold licences to take bets.

Online casinos are a different story. The research behind this guide found that online gambling licensing in Botswana is limited, and we couldn’t confirm a licence category that covers online casino games. In practice that means:

• Licensed sports betting is available from local bookmakers that answer to the Gambling Authority.
• Online casino games are offered to Batswana mainly by international sites licensed abroad, in Curaçao or Anjouan.
• The law doesn’t clearly approve those offshore sites, and the Gambling Authority can’t step in if you have a dispute with one.

We’re not lawyers, and this isn’t legal advice. If you need certainty, contact the Gambling Authority directly.

Which sites accept players from Botswana?

The ranked list above shows the international brands that accept Batswana, with 1Win first. All of them hold offshore licences, so read the next section before you sign up.

• 1Win is our top pick for Botswana. It combines a casino with thousands of games and a full sportsbook, and its welcome package is a percentage match spread over several deposits. The terms shown in your cashier are the ones that count, because they can differ from the South African version on the rest of this site.
• The 1xBet family, meaning 1xBet, 22Bet, Melbet, Betwinner, Megapari and PariPesa, all accept Botswana. They have deep football markets and long lists of payment options.
• Crypto casinos BC.Game, Cloudbet, Rollbit and Shuffle accept Batswana and pay out quickly in crypto. Botswana is one of the few African countries where our sources confirm Shuffle is available.

Mostbet is missing on purpose. Its casino terms have listed Botswana as a restricted country, so we leave it out. Roobet is also absent: one source lists Botswana among its restricted countries, and sources conflict.

Why South African sites aren’t on the list

Many Batswana follow South African football and know the SA brands well. But Hollywoodbets, Betway’s South African site, Supabets, Sunbet and the other SA-licensed bookmakers don’t accept players from Botswana. Their licences come from South African provincial gambling boards and cover players in South Africa only.

If you’ve seen Betway advertised locally, that’s Betway Botswana, a separate operator with a local licence, not the .co.za site we review for South Africa. It’s listed above as a local operator.

How to deposit and withdraw in Botswana

Mobile money is the most convenient way to fund an account for most people. Botswana’s three main wallets are:

• Orange Money, the widest-reaching wallet
• MyZaka, Mascom’s mobile money service
• Smega, the mobile wallet from BTC

Locally licensed bookmakers usually support these wallets directly. At international sites, support varies by brand and changes often, so check the cashier for your country before you deposit.

The other common options are:

• Visa and Mastercard debit and credit cards. Banks sometimes decline card payments to offshore gambling sites, so a card deposit can fail even when the site lists it.
• Crypto, especially Tether (USDT). This is the fastest route at the crypto casinos, but you’ll need to buy USDT through an exchange first and convert it back to pula yourself.

Currency conversion and withdrawals

Offshore sites rarely hold balances in pula. You’ll usually play in US dollars, euros or crypto, so every deposit and withdrawal may carry an exchange margin, and your balance moves with the exchange rate.

Before your first withdrawal, expect to verify your identity with an Omang or passport and sometimes proof of address. Upload them soon after you register so a first withdrawal isn’t held up. Our guide to the fastest withdrawal methods is written for South Africa, but its advice on e-wallets and crypto applies here too.

What to watch for with offshore sites

An offshore licence isn’t a scam warning. Curaçao and Anjouan license plenty of large, long-running operators. It does change what happens when something goes wrong:

• No local regulator. The Gambling Authority licenses local operators only. A complaint about an offshore site goes to that site’s support and then to its licensing body abroad.
• Bonus terms are strict. Welcome bonuses come with wagering requirements, game weightings and maximum bet rules. Read them in full, and use our explainer on wagering requirements to see what a bonus really costs.
• Account rules. One account per person and household is standard. Opening a second account to claim a bonus again is the quickest way to lose your winnings.

Our comparison of offshore and locally licensed casinos goes into more detail.

Popular sports and leagues in Botswana

Football is the main betting sport. The Botswana Premier League is the local favourite. Abroad, the English Premier League, the UEFA Champions League and La Liga are the leagues Batswana bet on most.

Most international sportsbooks list the Botswana Premier League, but the depth of markets is thinner than for European football: you’ll usually get match result, totals and both-teams-to-score rather than player props. If you like accumulators across several leagues, our guide to accumulator betting explains how the odds and the bookmaker’s margin build up with each leg.

Neighbouring guides: Namibia, Zimbabwe and Zambia.

Responsible gambling in Botswana

Our research couldn’t confirm a national gambling helpline in Botswana. The NRGP number in the box at the end of this page is South Africa’s national line, so if you’re in Botswana, lean on these tools instead:

• Deposit limits in your account settings, set before you play, not after a loss
• Time-outs and self-exclusion, which most international sites offer for anything from a day to permanently
• Your bank or mobile wallet, which can often block or limit gambling payments on request

If gambling is causing money worries or stress, talk to someone you trust or a health professional. Our guide to responsible gambling tools explains each option. Gambling is entertainment that costs money; it’s never a way to make it.