In 2026, Zambia taxes sports betting across four layers: a 10% excise duty on every stake, a 5% levy on deposits and a separate 5% levy on withdrawals, a 15% withholding tax deducted from gross winnings, and a 1% Minimum Alternative Tax on operator turnover — there is no single flat betting tax rate.
Stake 100 Kwacha on a weekend football coupon in Zambia today, and three separate deductions can touch that money before it ever reaches your mobile wallet as a payout. Zambia betting tax 2026 rules stack a stake-based excise duty, a deposit-and-withdrawal levy, and a withholding tax on winnings — plus a turnover-based minimum tax that affects operators rather than your bet slip directly. This guide walks through what each layer actually costs you, confirmed against the Betting Levy Act, 2025 and the Customs and Excise (Amendment) Act, so you know what you keep rather than what a single headline rate suggests.
Zambia Betting Tax 2026: The Layers You’ll Actually Pay
Zambia’s gambling tax framework was rebuilt in stages between late 2025 and early 2026, and it now works as a stack rather than a single rate:
- 10% excise duty on every amount staked, charged at the moment you place a bet
- 5% levy on deposits and a further 5% levy on withdrawals from your gaming account
- 15% withholding tax deducted from gross winnings before payout
- 1% Minimum Alternative Tax (MAT) on operator turnover — not deducted from your bet directly, but relevant to how operators price odds
Each is explained below, with where it comes from and who actually pays it.
The 10% Excise Duty on Every Stake
Since September 2025, under the Customs and Excise (Amendment) Act No. 11 of 2025, every bet placed in Zambia carries a 10% excise duty calculated on the amount staked — not on the winnings, not on the deposit, but on the stake itself. Operators must manually compute the duty and remit it by the 15th of the following month through their Withholding Tax Accounts.
Betway and betPawa jointly challenged the duty before Zambia’s Constitutional Court, calling it financially unsustainable; the court dismissed their bid for an interim injunction in October 2025, and the ZRA has continued enforcing monthly remittance deadlines through 2026. Betway and BetLion both suspended parts of their Zambian operations in protest at the time, while betPawa paused only its casino and jackpot products and kept sports betting running under the duty. As of October 2026, the 10% excise duty remains active — it has not been withdrawn or zero-rated.
Practically, this means the number on your bet slip before you confirm it is not the number that actually leaves your balance: 10% of your stake is earmarked for excise duty the instant you tap confirm.
The 5%/5% Betting Levy on Deposits and Withdrawals
A second, separate charge arrived through the Betting Levy Act, 2025 (Act No. 27 of 2025), in force from 1 January 2026. Section 5 is specific: a 5% levy applies to all deposits made into a customer’s gaming account, and a further 5% levy applies to all withdrawals — two separate charges, not one combined rate.
- The levy is calculated on deposits and withdrawals, not on winnings credited internally between bets
- Under Section 6, brick-and-mortar betting companies are exempt — the levy lands almost entirely on online and mobile betting, the channel most Zambian bettors actually use
Combined, a full cycle of funding an account and later cashing out carries a 10% levy load on top of the stake-level excise duty — two different taxes, on two different bases, both live at the same time.
15% Withholding Tax on Your Winnings
Separately from your stake or deposit, Zambia applies a withholding tax directly to gambling winnings — 15%, deducted by the operator before your payout is released, so you never see the gross figure land in your account. This rate came from a 2023 budget reduction from the 20% rate that applied before, and Zambia’s 2026 budget documents confirm the rate is being maintained at 15% rather than reverting upward.
Not every source online agrees on the current figure — some older consumer pages still cite the pre-2023 20% rate. For a bettor, the practical takeaway is simpler than the legal history: check the deduction shown on your actual payout slip rather than relying on either number blind.
The 1% Minimum Alternative Tax — Does It Touch Your Payout?
The Income Tax (Amendment) Act, 2025, effective from the 2026 charge year, introduced a Minimum Alternative Tax (MAT) of 1% on a company’s total turnover, aimed at businesses that report high revenue but minimal taxable profit — exactly the profile of a high-volume, thin-margin betting operator.
The exact reach of MAT on betting specifically is less settled than it first appears: MAT excludes businesses taxed under Zambia’s presumptive tax regime, but separate 2025 reforms moved online betting and gaming out of presumptive tax and onto the new 5% levy instead, while brick-and-mortar operators stayed under presumptive tax. That shift means the clearest basis for excluding online operators from MAT is weaker than it was before the levy existed — a detail worth watching rather than treating as settled either way.
What’s clear for you as a player: MAT doesn’t appear as a line-item deduction on your bet slip or payout. It affects a licensed operator’s corporate tax position, not your individual transaction.
How Much Do You Actually Keep? A Worked Example
Here’s how the layers interact across a simple cycle — deposit, stake, win, withdraw:
- Deposit 500 ZMW → 5% betting levy applies to the deposit transaction
- Stake 500 ZMW on a bet → 10% excise duty is calculated on this stake at the moment you place it
- Win, gross payout 1,000 ZMW → 15% withholding tax is deducted from the gross winnings before the operator credits your account
- Withdraw the balance → a further 5% betting levy applies to the withdrawal transaction
None of these deductions is applied against the others — they’re calculated independently, at different points in the same cycle. That’s the core reason a flat “tax rate” figure for Zambian betting is misleading: what you keep depends on how many of these trigger points your money passes through, not on a single published percentage.
Is Online Betting Even Legal in Zambia in 2026?
Land-based casinos and betting shops have a clear legal footing: they’re licensed by the Betting Control and Licensing Board (BCLB) under legislation that has been in place for decades. Online betting sits differently. According to the SoftSWISS Gambling Regulation Map, online gambling in Zambia is not directly regulated under a dedicated law and isn’t formally licensed — international operators that accept Zambian players may still pay local gaming taxes without holding a specific online licence, which puts the online segment in a genuine grey area rather than either clearly legal or clearly banned.
For a player, this matters beyond theory: the ZRA taxes betting activity — stakes, deposits, withdrawals, winnings — regardless of whether the specific online operator holds a formal online licence. The tax framework has moved faster than the licensing framework.
Zambia’s Tax Stack vs Its Neighbours
Zambia’s stake-based excise duty is a deliberate design choice, not the only model on the continent. Kenya, for instance, applies its own excise duty at the point funds move from a mobile wallet into a betting account rather than at the point of the bet itself — a difference covered in more depth in our Kenya Betting Tax 2026 Explained guide. Ghana and Nigeria each run different structures again, built around withholding tax and gross gaming revenue levies rather than a stake-level excise charge — see the full side-by-side breakdown in our Nigeria vs Kenya vs Ghana Betting Laws: 2026 Comparison Guide.
Zambia Betting Tax 2026 FAQ
Do I pay both the excise duty and the betting levy on the same bet?
Yes. The 10% excise duty is calculated on your stake when you place a bet, while the 5%/5% betting levy is calculated separately on your deposits and withdrawals. They apply to different transaction types and both can touch the same cycle of money.
Has Zambia suspended the 10% betting excise duty?
No. Despite claims circulating that the duty was suspended to zero from January 2026, enforcement reporting through 2026 — including ZRA compliance reminders — confirms the 10% excise duty on stakes remains active and is collected monthly alongside the newer 5%/5% betting levy.
Is the withholding tax on winnings 15% or 20% in 2026?
The applicable rate is 15%, confirmed as maintained in Zambia’s 2026 budget documents following a 2023 reduction from 20%. Some older consumer sources still reference the pre-2023 rate, so check the deduction on your actual payout slip if in doubt.
Is online betting legal in Zambia right now?
It sits in a grey area. Land-based betting and casinos are licensed under long-standing laws through the BCLB, but online betting isn’t governed by a dedicated licensing law — international operators can still accept Zambian players and pay local gaming taxes without holding a specific online licence.
Kwame Mensah is an experienced gambling analyst focused on the African betting industry. He shares insights on sports betting, casino platforms, market trends, and responsible gaming across multiple African countries.
