Nigeria’s recent decision to reverse the National Lottery Act has sent shockwaves through the gambling industry with these massive widespread changes having a massive effect on not only the Nigerian population but the gambling industry as a whole. Gambling has been massive in Nigeria since the act was introduced in 2005, so this will no doubt have a massive impact on Nigeria’s gambling industry and its fans.

These changes now mean that on Google in Nigeria, no gambling adverts of any kind can be shown. This includes the products themselves, any promotions or bonuses and even betting advice. This is dramatically different to many countries around the world who are just starting to take a more liberal approach, such as Canada. Canadian operators are able to advertise as much gambling content as they like, and websites displaying the best Canadian online casinos are listed at affiliate sites like casino.ca without any issues

Whilst this is the biggest change in gambling in Nigeria for twenty years, in this article we’ll be taking a deeper look into what exactly this means for the gambling industry both in Nigeria and the wider world.

What exactly is banned

Following the removal of the act, any form of advertisement of gambling has been banned from being advertised. What this means is companies are no longer able to advertise any form of gambling related content which includes the websites, promotions, offers and any advice websites.

Previously if you googled gambling, there would be hundreds of items returned with various options to choose from, however now due to these changes, none of those pages are allowed to be displayed, meaning information around gambling in Nigeria is now virtually non-existent.

What this means for businesses

For gambling companies in Nigeria, this is devastating news, as previously, a lot of their new customers were driven by google searches and via promotional offers. However, going forward they’ll not be able to put any advertisement up at all meaning they’re solely relying on word of mouth and returning customers to bring in money.

Not only is this sustainable for large online companies, but it could cause smaller online websites to go out of business as without their advertisement, they’ll not be able to get enough new players through the door to keep up with the bigger well-known websites that will be able to survive on their name alone.

With these changes, players not knowing where to go, may end up going via black market sites to find other alternatives abroad, taking the business away from Nigeria altogether. This understandably would put a great deal of stress on companies as they would struggle to maintain a player base as new players wouldn’t be able to find the websites in order to sign up.

With all these businesses struggling and potentially closing, this also means loss of jobs for hundreds and if not thousands of people in Nigeria as without the customer base to support them, the businesses would be forced to close. These people would then be out of work which would have a detrimental impact on both their lives but also the economy.

Effects on the players

For people already signed up and playing, they will continue to play how they already do by logging into one website and playing their games. However, as these players phase out, newer players won’t be taking their place as they’ll not be seeing any advertisements or promotions for the website.

New players may be forced to go elsewhere to play including black market websites that are hosted in other countries. Websites that are available for players in Nigeria will be very restricted and limited to certain types of betting, vastly reducing what players have available to them.

They also may also receive worse deals, as websites will know the players are limited in what they can play and either increase prices or reduce payouts to increase their profits meaning players will be worse off and lose out on potential winnings. They’ll also not be able to access any promotions or offers, something that players use on a regular basis that allows them to get a lot more for their money and can sometimes be the difference between a player playing another game and stopping all together.

Players may also decide that if they’re not able to play a certain type of game, they may just not play all together. If this happens, then that money won’t be put back into the economy which in turn then affects everything else in the long run and could end up increasing costs in other areas too.

The news of these changes was a shock to the gambling industry and is one that will not only have consequences to Nigeria, but also to other countries around the world. Do you think this was the right decision?