Morocco's draft 2027 budget counts on betting and lottery income and touches gaming winnings declarations
Morocco's draft 2027 Finance Bill, released on 23 October 2026, projects MAD195m (about US$19.5m) from betting deductions, lottery proceeds and SOREC horse racing profits. It also proposes adding gaming winnings declarations to a tax assessment rule. Parliament can still change it.
South Africa is itself preparing to tax online gambling, with the Treasury pointing to the February 2027 budget. Morocco shows how another African market treats gambling income as a budget line and starts to look at what winners declare. For South African players the lesson is that winnings and the way they are reported are increasingly on the tax authorities' radar, so it is sensible to keep your own records.
What the draft says
Morocco's Ministry of Economy and Finance released the draft Finance Bill for the 2027 budget year (Bill No. 60-26) on 23 October 2026. The country's Government Council had approved it on 20 October.
The draft projects MAD90m (US$9m) from deductions on mutual betting, MAD80m (US$8m) from lottery proceeds and MAD25m (US$2.5m) in expected distributed profits from SOREC, the Royal Society for the Encouragement of the Horse. Together that is MAD195m, or about US$19.5m.
The winnings declaration change
The draft also proposes amending Article 228 of the General Tax Code, which covers automatic tax assessment. Subject to legal requirements, a declaration relating to gaming winnings would be added to the cases that can trigger the procedure when required declarations are missing or incomplete by the legal deadline.
According to a Hespress report cited by iGaming Afrika, if the law is approved in its proposed form the change would apply to operations starting on 1 January 2027. This is a draft and it is still open to parliamentary review.
What it means for South African players
Nothing changes for South African players today. The wider point is direction of travel. Governments across Africa are treating gambling as a revenue source and tightening the paperwork around it. South Africa's own online gambling tax design is expected to be settled around the February 2027 budget, and our earlier report on that is linked below.
If you play at offshore sites, remember that being able to access a casino does not mean it is licensed here, and any tax obligations on winnings are a matter for you and a qualified tax adviser. Gambling is entertainment with real risk.
What to watch next
Watch for amendments during parliamentary review, and for whether the winnings declaration wording survives. Our related report on South Africa's tax plans is the closest local comparison.