The High Court on the 19th day of March, 2026 has delivered a landmark decision in the area of gaming regulation in Ghana in the case of GAFAT CONSULT LTD v. MOBILE SPORT & ANOR [TLP-HC-2026-13]. The brief facts of the case is that, one Mr. Benjamin Boateng, a worker of the Plaintiff who had the possession and control of the mobile money account of the Plaintiff-Gafat Consult Ltd. used an amount of GH¢364,847 (Three Hundred and Sixty-Four Thousand, and Eight Hundred Forty-Seven Ghana Cedis) belonging to the Plaintiff-company for betting with MSports.

Upon a denial of a request for the refund of the said amount by the betting company and a response to a complaint lodged by the Plaintiff with the gaming commission, the Plaintiff filed it's writ seeking to recover the company funds used by the said Benjamin Boateng in unauthorised betting on the platform of the 1st Defendant.

The High Court presided by the learned Justice Ayitey Armah-Tetteh J.A sitting on the High Court Bench with Additional duties upon satisfaction of breaches to the regulation and guidelines of the gaming commission and the breach to Msport's platform protocols granted the reliefs of the Plaintiff.

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The court held the firm view, at pages 16 -17 of the reported decision which can be read here that "If, MSPORT verified the personal information of Mr. Boateng as they claim, why were they not able to detect that the MTN Mobile money number 0597394547 was a corporate number that belongs to GAFAT and not a personal number of Mr. Boateng? If they had done their verification well by undertaking a proper Know Your Customer (KYC) procedure, they would have found that the MTN Mobile number used by Mr. Boateng in signing up on their betting platform was a corporate mobile number and would also have conducted further checks to verify whether Mr. Boateng was a director or secretary of GAFAT or not as stated in Exhibit G by the regulator Gaming Commission. If they had conducted a proper verification, they would have discovered that Mr. Boateng was neither a director nor a secretary of GAFAT. Consequently, he would have been denied access to MSPORT's betting platform, which would have prevented him from placing bets using GAFAT's MTN mobile number, 0597394547."

In the Courts application of principles of evidence assessment, the Court found and held "that Mr. Boateng used funds in the sum of Ghs364,847 (Three Hundred and Sixty-Four Thousand, and Eight Hundred and Forty-Seven Ghana Cedis) standing in the credit of GAFAT's MTN Mobile Money Merchant Number 0597394547 to bet on MSPORT's betting platform in violation of the regulations of betting by the use of GAFAT's Corporate SIM by Mr. Boateng in his personal capacity."

The Court thus entered judgment for the Plaintiff against the betting company as follows:

"1. A declaration that the 1st Defendant Company, MSPORT, failed to observe regulatory guidelines on its platform, in accordance with the Gaming Commission of Ghana.

2. An order for MSPORT to pay to GAFAT the amount of Ghs364,847 (Three Hundred and Sixty-Four Thousand, and Eight Hundred Forty-Seven Ghana Cedis), which Mr. Boateng used to bet on MSPORT's betting platform.

3. Interest on the said amount of Ghs364,847 (Three Hundred and Sixty-Four Thousand, and Forty-Seven Ghana Cedis) from August 2022 to the date of final payment.

4. Costs of Ghs40,000.00 in favour of GAFAT and against MSPORT."

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