Reports MOROCCO MARKET Morocco
Azur Sky Tinking Morocco might be a strict Islamic
country, but it’s also an African state that tolerates gambling. There are seven casinos in four cities plus poker and three monopoly companies, which operate the national lottery, sports betting and horse racing industries.
Legal regulation of gambling in Morocco really began in 2002 when the Prime Minister signed a decree which meant casinos could operate legally. But with 90 per cent of the population Islamists the idea of gambling is still not embraced fully by residents.
In 2012 the Moroccan Minister of Telecommunications Mustafa al-Khalfim began a campaign to introduce a ban against the advertising and the promotion of gambling via audiovisual media. He criticised the popularity of TV programmes with live gambling and called for a law to ban such programmes.
Apparently there were around 900,000 viewers on one day which Khalfi claimed was having a negative impact on the younger generation.
Gambling has always been a contentious issue and Khalfi even threatened his resignation if the law to ban live gambling on state owned media wasn’t passed. Although some forms of gambling are driven by tourism, statistics show around three million Moroccans also partake in some kind of gambling whilst the industry generates almost DS2.9bn for the state treasury.
P50 NEWSWIRE / INTERACTIVE / MARKET DATA
A decree was eventually issued which meant all lottery and gambling advertisements were to be banned from both public and private radio and television broadcasts.
Te operators have since taken their promotions online with their own YouTube channels and social media sites such as Facebook and gambling is still big business in Morocco nonetheless. In fact the number of Moroccans who enjoy a bet rose by five per cent in 2016 despite the government ban on advertising.
Te alcohol, tobacco and gaming sectors were expected to generate more than MAD11bn in taxes last year, whilst some MAD190m was due in terms of taxation from games of chance alone.
THE GAMBLING SECTORS Morocco has three main gambling monopolies
plus seven casinos. Te activity is monitored by a mixed model of public and private companies via three ministries – Economy and Finance, Youth and Sport and Agriculture.
Since 2013 the gambling market has grown by
around one third and in 2016 total betting turnover for the sector (not including the casinos) was MAD9.4bn (US$941m) an increase of 6.6 per cent on the year previously.
Te dominant betting activity is at the racetrack where the Royal Society for Horse Encouragement (SOREC) enjoys a betting monopoly. SOREC has around 30 branches and an additional 500 points of sale via partnerships and saw a betting turnover of MAD6.4bn (a rise of three per cent) giving it a 70 per cent market share (not including casinos).
In 2016 SOREC launched a mobile data app to keep players informed of Moroccan and French racing info.
Meanwhile sports betting and instant lotteries are the sole responsibility of the Moroccan Games and Sports (MDJS). Turnover in 2017 was MAD2.44bn which is a growth of 167 per cent since 2013.
MDJS was founded in 1962 and is a limited company under state control. It holds the concession of the monopoly to organise sports
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