People involved in sports betting and gaming will have to forego 30% of their winnings in form of taxes to Government if the proposed amendment to the Lotteries and Gaming Act, 2016 is approved in its current form.
The proposal is contained in the tax bills that were recently tabled by Ministry of Finance that is seeking amendments into the Lotteries and Gaming Act, 2016 in order to change rate of tax from the current 20% to 30%.
The bill is proposing to make changes by substituting thus, “Twenty percent of the total amount of money staked less the payouts (winnings) for the period of filing returns for a betting activity. Thirty percent of the total amount of money staked less the payouts (winnings) for the period of filing returns for the gaming activity.”
The new changes comes at the time the National Lotteries and Gaming Board (NLGB) revealed last week plans to collect Shs119.844Bn in 2022/2023 financial year as revenue from proceeds and licensing of sports betting and gaming across the country.
While presenting the Board’s 2023/2024 ministerial policy statement for the National Lotteries and Gaming Board, Denis Ngabirano, Acting Chief Executive Officer of the Board informed the Finance Committee that the annual revenue collections has grown from Shs17.16Bn in 2015/2016 when the Board was established to Shs110.5Bn in 2021/2022 and in just the first half of the current financial year 2022/2023, the Board has already collected Shs81Bn out of the projected Shs119.8Bn the Board had earmarked to collect.
