African gambling regulators will begin drafting a regional cooperation framework at a Nov. 5 workshop during SiGMA World Rome, with discussions focusing on information sharing, enforcement coordination, and illegal gambling while preserving national regulatory autonomy.
The Gaming Regulators Africa Forum (GRAF) and SiGMA will host the workshop at Fiera Roma, where delegates will begin preparing the Rome Working Draft (Version 0.1). The initiative builds on discussions at the GRAF Regulatory Forum held during SiGMA Africa 2026 in Cape Town in March.
The workshop, themed “Building an African Regulatory Cooperation Framework: Advancing Harmonisation Through Collaboration”, will focus on practical mechanisms for cooperation rather than aligning gambling legislation across African jurisdictions.
Cross-border gambling, illegal gambling and money laundering present challenges that individual regulators may struggle to address independently. The proposed framework aims to strengthen coordination and information exchange while allowing each jurisdiction to retain its legislative autonomy.
The workshop will begin with introductory remarks from GRAF and SiGMA, followed by two panel discussions. The first, “Learning from Global Models: What Could Work for African Regulatory Cooperation?”, will examine international cooperation frameworks, information-sharing mechanisms, joint investigations and enforcement models that could be adapted to Africa’s diverse regulatory environments.
The second panel, “Cross-Border Gambling, Illegal Markets and Regulatory Cooperation”, will address enforcement challenges, information-sharing gaps and responsible gambling, incorporating industry perspectives on the practical application of regulation.
Delegates will then divide into five facilitated working groups to develop recommendations on information-sharing protocols, legal and institutional arrangements, operational enforcement cooperation, capacity building and knowledge exchange, and communication and stakeholder engagement.
The groups will present their findings during a plenary session to identify common themes and areas of agreement. GRAF will consolidate the recommendations to inform the cooperation framework. The programme will also include a keynote by Jaime Debono of iGaming Academy, followed by a summary of next steps and a commitment pledge.
Bonga Mngoma, Executive for Transformation and Economic Development at South Africa’s KwaZulu-Natal Economic Regulatory Authority, will serve as programme director and moderate the first panel. Mabutho Zwane, GRAF president, will join Mngoma for the opening remarks, while Zoé Siwa, chief financial officer of the Western Cape Gambling and Racing Board, will moderate the second panel. Mngoma and Siwa will jointly facilitate the working groups.
Senior representatives of national and provincial gambling regulators and government agencies from South Africa, Nigeria, Mauritius, Uganda and Rwanda are expected to participate, alongside industry representatives from the African iGaming Alliance and iGaming Academy.
The initiative follows discussions in Cape Town, where participants identified full coordination of licensing as difficult to achieve in the short term but pointed to greater cooperation, information sharing and consistent principles as potential areas of progress.
When the GRAF partnership was announced in February, Heathcliff Farrugia, SiGMA’s chief international relations officer, said: “The objective is not simply conversation, but progress”.
The Rome workshop is intended to move those discussions toward an initial written framework, with regulators jointly developing recommendations for practical cooperation across national borders.
The GRAF session is among several regulatory workshops scheduled during SiGMA World Rome, which runs from Nov. 2 to Nov. 5, 2026.
On Nov. 3, a workshop on digital finance, artificial intelligence, blockchain and cryptocurrency will examine regulatory approaches in the European Union and the Global Majority. On Nov. 4, a session presented by Gaming Associates will explore how official lotteries direct gaming revenue toward public services, education and healthcare.
SiGMA World Rome is expected to bring together 30,000 delegates, more than 1,200 sponsors and exhibitors, and over 550 expert speakers.