DECENTRALIZING THE UNLOCATABLE: NIGERIA’S SUPREME COURT,DIGITAL GAMBLING,and THE LIMITS of TERRITORIAL FEDERALISM

Abstract

On November 22, 2024, the Supreme Court of Nigeria unanimously struck down the National Lottery Act, holding that lotteries are residual matters exclusively within state competence. The judgment resolves a 16-year dispute and vindicates federalism principles in Nigeria’s 1999 Constitution. Yet the decision is a product of its historical moment: It answers a territorial question with territorial logic just as the gambling market has ceased to be territorial. This commentary argues that decentralized licensure, without harmonized standards, is structurally incompatible with internet-mediated sports betting, where transactions traverse jurisdictional boundaries instantaneously and continuously. The resulting fragmentation generates regulatory arbitrage, exposes consumers to inconsistent protections, and creates enforcement gaps that no single state in the federation can close unilaterally. Drawing on comparisons with UK and US models, the commentary contends the ruling produces a regulatorily obsolete outcome, and the burden of correcting this now falls on interstate harmonization.