Gambling flagged as suspicious transaction reports rise
Mbongeni Mguni | Wednesday December 10, 2025 06:00
By law, banks, bureaux de change, car dealers, microlenders, attorneys, and others must file suspicious transaction reports with the FIA.
The agency defines a suspicious transaction as one inconsistent with a customer’s known legitimate business, one that gives rise to a reasonable suspicion that may involve the commission of a financial offence, one made in circumstances of unusual or unjustified complexity, one that appears to have no economic justification or lawful objective or made by or on behalf of a person whose identity is unknown, amongst other factors.
The Financial Stability Council (FSC), a watchdog made up of the FIA, the Bank of Botswana and the Non-Bank Financial Institutions Regulatory Authority, this week said suspicious transaction reports rose to P139.1 million in the five months between April and August this year, compared to P68.1 million over the same period last year.
Gambling, which has exploded in the country following the licensing of online sports betting companies last year, was flagged as one of the emerging drivers of the suspicious transactions.
“Notably, the FIA observed emerging patterns such as the use of high-value cash in gambling, personal accounts for business transactions, and drug-related financial activity,” the FSC said in an update released last week.
“These trends underscore the evolving nature of money laundering and terrorist financing risks, reinforcing the importance of timely and diverse STR submissions in safeguarding financial system integrity.”
Online sports betting has spread like wildfire in the country, with the last available statistics showing that punters placed bets worth P150 million in March alone this year. Global sports betting giant, Betway, in announcing revenues of $646 million (P8.7 billion) between just January and September in Africa, particularly noted the exceptional performance of Botswana since the launch of its services in February.
For that period, Betway reportedly disclosed that 95% of its revenues came from 10 countries: South Africa, Canada, the UK, New Zealand, Ghana, the US (from which it is exiting), Spain, Botswana, Zambia, and Mozambique.
More worrying for the Gambling Authority, however, is the fact that a recent study by the regulator and the University of Botswana showed that illegal, unregulated betting has surged to over P500 million, twice the size of Botswana’s regulated betting market.
In its latest update, FIA said the majority of suspicious transaction reports originated from the banking sector, which accounted for 310 reports totalling P135.5 million. Other reporting entities included micro-lenders, bureaux de change, and legal professionals.
“The predominant predicate offences were illegal deposit-taking, tax evasion, and fraud,” the authority said.
Last week, FIA and the Gambling Authority revealed that they are currently investigating eight betting sites that are based outside the country, but using local proxies to operate illegally in-country.
The two entities said they had engaged the Botswana Communications Regulatory Authority and Botswana Fibre Networks (BoFiNet) to use their technical expertise and software to block the IP addresses of the illegal online betting sites for the purpose of restricting access.
The Gambling Authority and FIA have also engaged local banks and mobile network operators to continue to assist by blocking accounts which have been identified as those used for unlawful transactions.