Mozambique: Casino taxes increase by nearly 5% but remain below the government target

Mozambique collected 387.8 million meticais (€5.8 million) in 2024 from taxes paid by casinos, an increase of 4.5% year-on-year, but below the government’s target.

According to data from the Ministry of Finance’s economic and social balance of the implementation of the 2024 State Budget, compiled today by Lusa, Mozambique had collected a total of 317.4 million meticais (€4.7 million) from this Special Tax on Gambling between January and September 2024.

In the last quarter of the year (October to December), the country collected just over 70 million meticais (€1 million) from this tax, in a period marked by strong social unrest, protests, demonstrations and post-election stoppages.

In the whole of 2023, the Special Tax on Gambling brought in 371.1 million meticais (€5.5 million) for Mozambique, and in 2024 the government set a forecast of collecting almost 1,235 million meticais (€18.4 million), having only realised around a third (31.4%) of that target.

The taxes paid by casinos in Mozambique in this period represented only 0.1% of all state revenue, according to the same report.

Five casino concessions in Mozambique, ‘ventures driven by the private sector’, generated investments of $36 million (€34 million), the president of Mozambique at the time, Filipe Nyusi, announced on 8 August.

He explained that these were ‘major investments in the tourism chain’, such as casino and slot machine concessions in Maputo, Beira, Tete, Nampula, Matola and Pemba.

According to information from Mozambique’s National Directorate of Gambling, the award of casino concessions in the country requires a share capital of the concessionaire’s commercial company of no less than the equivalent of almost $2.7 million (€2.6 million) and an investment, over up to five years, of at least $5.5 million (€5.2 million).

For the effective operation of games of chance, the concessionaires must pay the Mozambican state a Special Gambling Tax, levied on gross gambling revenues, of 20% for concessions of up to 14 years, 25% for concessions of up to 19 years, 30% for concessions of 20 to 24 years and 35% for concessions of 25 to 30 years.

‘Concessionaires must also pay Stamp Duty, corresponding to 50% of the price of entrance tickets to casinos,’ states the National Directorate for Games of Fortune or Chance, while adding that they “are exempt from paying other taxes levied on profits from the operation of gambling”, as well as import duties on imported equipment and materials intended exclusively for the operation of the casino.