On 22 November 2024, a seven-member panel of the Supreme Court struck down the National Lottery Act 2005. Twenty months on, the result is not deregulation but multiplication: operators that once relied on a single federal licence now negotiate a separate regime in every state where they accept a stake. For businesses built on software rather than premises, most of that cost has landed in an unexpected place — the back office.
What the court actually decided
In Attorney-General of Lagos State & Ors v Attorney-General of the Federation (SC/1/2008), the court held unanimously that lotteries and games of chance appear nowhere on the 68-item Exclusive Legislative List, nor on the Concurrent List.
They are residual matters, reserved to state Houses of Assembly. Delivering the lead judgment, Justice Mohammed Idris confined the National Lottery Act to the Federal Capital Territory, ending the National Lottery Regulatory Commission’s nationwide mandate. As Vanguard reported at the time, the reliefs sought by Lagos and its co-plaintiffs were granted in full.
The National Assembly tested that boundary regardless. The Central Gaming Bill 2025 cleared both chambers on 2 December 2025, claiming federal oversight of online gaming on the argument that telecommunications sits on the Exclusive List, so the medium determines the jurisdiction. President Tinubu declined assent later that month.
