Ghana Court Rules MSport Must Return GH¢364k Following Employee’s Unauthorized Betting

A Ghana High Court has ordered MSport to refund GH¢364,847 to Gafat Consult Limited after one of its employees used company funds for gambling.

Justice Ayitey Armah‑Tetteh ruled on on March 19, 2026 that MSport failed to prevent the registration of a corporate mobile money merchant number on its platform, even though its own system was designed to accept only personal accounts.

The dispute began in 2022 when Gafat Consult discovered that GH¢364,847 had been staked through its corporate mobile money account, which had been registered on MSport’s platform by employee Benjamin Boateng.

Instead of blocking the registration, the system allowed the merchant number to pass as a personal account.

In court, MSport’s own Operations Manager admitted under questioning: “Is a Company’s number a personal number? A. No. Can a Company’s number be used to sign up on your platform? A. No.” That testimony undermined the company’s defence and confirmed that its system had failed to enforce its own rules. Transaction records later showed the number belonged to Gafat Consult, not Boateng personally.

Justice Ayitey Armah‑Tetteh relied on section 3(1) of the Gaming Act, 2006 (Act 721) and section 35(2) of the Anti-Money Laundering Act, 2020 (Act 1044) and ruled that proper Know Your Customer checks must go beyond names and ID documents. Operators are expected to confirm that funds are legitimate and that the person using them is authorised.

The Gaming Commission acknowledged that Gafat had given Boateng access to the merchant SIM, but also noted that only a director or secretary could register such a number.

In its final orders, the court directed MSport to refund GH¢364,847, pay interest from August 2022 until settlement, cover GH¢40,000 in costs, and accept a declaration of regulatory failure.

Ghana Court Rules MSport Must Return GH¢364k Following Employee’s Unauthorized Betting

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