About this app
How to play Fire Lightning
This was revealed through documents obtained by ABC and statements from ILGA chair Caroline Lamb on Monday.
Introduced in 1998, ClubGRANTS was designed to channel a share of gambling-linked profits from gaming clubs back into local communities. This includes health and welfare services as well as community development and sporting clubs.
According to the Gaming Machine Tax Act 2001, a tax rebate of up to 1.85% of a club’s gaming machine profits is made available to any registered club that records profits of over $1 million (US$715,000) during a tax year.
About Fire Lightning
By December 2025, Kemorwale said gambling revenue had exceeded P700m, and the Authority expected the industry to surpass P1 billion by the end of the 2026/27 financial year in March 2027.
Kemorwale said Botswana needed to modernise oversight as the sector developed, including through a central electronic monitoring system and stronger enforcement capability. “Truth be told, this industry is evolving as the sun rises. You snooze, you lose,” Kemorwale said. He added that the Authority still relies on outside specialists for some technical regulatory work because domestic expertise is limited.
Illegal betting remained a central enforcement concern. In December 2025, the Gambling Authority and Financial Intelligence Agency were reported to be investigating eight foreign-based betting websites allegedly using local proxies to operate in Botswana.
About Fire Lightning
Touch Sokhak, deputy spokesperson of the Ministry of Interior, emphasised that the operation seeks to prevent Cambodia from becoming “a safe haven or money-laundering base for technology-related criminals”.
However, the sustained enforcement drive has already taken a toll on the wider Cambodian economy. In May, the government lowered its 2026 GDP growth forecast as construction, real estate and consumer spending absorb the short-term impact of the crackdown.
Meanwhile, the CGMC has not disclosed when the integrity and quality framework will be finalised, leaving casino operators without concrete guidance on the new requirements.
