Betting licensing Kenya is now administered by the Gambling Regulatory Authority (GRA), which took over from the Betting Control and Licensing Board (BCLB) following the enactment of the Gambling Control Act, 2025 (Act No. 14 of 2025). The Act, assented to on 7 August 2025 and commencing on 20 August 2025, repealed the Betting, Lotteries and Gaming Act (Cap 131 of the Laws of Kenya) in its entirety and established the GRA as an independent state corporation with a mandate over all gambling, lottery, and bookmaker activity in the country. The BCLB formally transferred authority to the GRA on 28 February 2026. The Authority gazetted its first five implementing regulations on 30 June 2026, covering licensing, conduct of gambling operations, foreign-based operators, advertising, and the Gambling Appeals Tribunal, and opened its first licensing cycle under the new framework on 1 July 2026. Operators still licensed under the repealed Cap. 131 framework have 60 days from 30 June 2026 to apply for a licence under the new regime. Any person seeking to operate a bookmaker’s business, casino, lottery, gaming machine, or online betting platform in Kenya must now obtain the appropriate licence from the GRA before commencing operations. Kenya’s gambling sector has experienced rapid growth driven by mobile money, online betting platforms, and sports betting, and this regulatory overhaul was itself a direct response to that growth, making compliance with the new framework more important than ever.
The Gambling Control Act, 2025 Framework in Kenya
The Gambling Control Act, 2025 provides the foundational legal framework for all gambling, betting, casino, lottery, and prize competition activity in Kenya, and establishes the GRA as the sole licensing and enforcement authority. A person may not be licensed to offer any gambling or betting activity unless it is a body corporate with at least 30% of its shares held by Kenyan citizens, and it maintains an account with a Kenyan-authorised financial institution into which all monies relating to the licensed activity are paid. Major operators must meet a prescribed minimum gambling capital of KES 1 billion, and online gambling and lottery operators must lodge a security deposit of up to KES 200 million. A licence issued under the Act is generally valid for 36 months from the date of issue, renewable subject to continued compliance. The Act also establishes a dedicated Gambling Appeals Tribunal, giving operators and other affected parties a faster route to challenge GRA decisions than the ordinary courts previously offered, and requires the GRA to operate an electronic, real-time gambling monitoring system across licensed platforms.
Casino Licence
A casino licence remains one of the most demanding categories under the new framework, requiring premises approval, staff licensing, anti-money laundering procedures, and responsible gambling policies. Casino licences require significant capital commitments consistent with the Act’s major-operator capital threshold and involve the most intensive ongoing supervision by the GRA of any licence category.
Lottery Licence
A lottery licence is required for any scheme whereby persons purchase chances to win prizes through a draw or other random method. Public lotteries for charitable purposes require a separate class of lottery permit. Lottery operators must hold prize money in trust and comply with the GRA’s prize distribution rules.
Online and Mobile Betting Licence
All online betting and mobile sports betting platforms operating in Kenya must be licensed by the GRA. Platform operators must be Kenyan-registered companies meeting the Act’s ownership and capital requirements, must integrate with the GRA’s electronic real-time gambling monitoring system, and must maintain systems accessible by the GRA for auditing purposes. Where a platform’s underlying technology, such as a betting website, payment processing system, or player-verification tool, is operated by a separate technology provider, that provider may itself require a remote platform authorisation from the GRA.
AML Compliance for Betting Operators
Betting and gaming operators in Kenya are Reporting Institutions under the Proceeds of Crime and Anti-Money Laundering Act (POCAMLA), and must register with the Financial Reporting Centre, appoint a Money Laundering Reporting Officer, conduct customer due diligence, and file suspicious transaction reports on the same basis as other regulated sectors. The Gambling Control Act, 2025 also amended parts of POCAMLA directly, reinforcing the GRA’s role in monitoring gambling-related financial flows for money laundering and terrorist financing risk alongside the FRC.
Operators must implement identity and age verification procedures and refuse access to persons under 18, and must cooperate with the GRA’s responsible gambling programme. The Act significantly tightens advertising rules: gambling advertisements must be pre-approved by the GRA, may not be broadcast on television or radio between 6am and 10pm except during live sporting events, must not use celebrity or lifestyle endorsements that glamorise gambling, must not target minors, and must devote a proportion of aired advertising time to responsible gambling messaging. Breach of the advertising rules carries fines of up to KES 20 million or imprisonment of up to five years. Operators must also maintain records of customer due diligence including age verification records for GRA inspection.
Tax Obligations for Betting Operators
Gambling taxation in Kenya has changed repeatedly over a short period, and this is an area where a business should confirm the currently applicable rates directly with the Kenya Revenue Authority rather than rely on any figure quoted here as settled. In outline, the trajectory has been: excise duty on stakes rose from 7.5% in 2021 to 12.5% in 2023 to 15% by December 2024; the Finance Act 2025 then restructured the model entirely, cutting excise duty to 5% and moving the point of taxation to the deposit into a betting wallet, while replacing the 20% withholding tax on net winnings with a 5% withholding tax applied on withdrawals from the wallet. A 15% tax on gross gaming revenue, payable by operators, has continued to apply throughout as a separate, turnover-style levy. Most recently, the Finance Act 2026, effective 1 July 2026, reintroduced a 20% withholding tax on winnings for both residents and non-residents, layered on top of the existing 5% withholding tax on withdrawals, and broadened the definition of a taxable deposit. Given how recently and frequently these rates have moved, and given this session’s own review found real figures elsewhere in this article had gone stale within months, operators should treat the specific percentages here as a guide to the structure rather than a substitute for a current KRA confirmation before filing or advising a client.
Online Betting Compliance Checklist
Online betting operators in Kenya must comply with a comprehensive regulatory checklist before launching and on an ongoing basis: valid GRA licence displayed on the platform; integration with the GRA’s real-time gambling monitoring system; KRA betting tax systems integrated; age verification implemented for all user registrations; responsible gambling information prominently displayed; FRC DNFBP registration completed; MLRO appointed and AML/CFT programme operational; data protection compliance with the DPA 2019 including ODPC registration; remote platform authorisation obtained if a separate technology provider operates the platform; and Communications Authority compliance if the platform involves telecoms features.
Sports Betting Integrity
Sports betting operators must implement match-fixing detection and reporting procedures and cooperate with the GRA, sports governing bodies, and law enforcement where irregular betting patterns suggest manipulation of a sporting outcome. Operators who knowingly facilitate match-fixing face licence revocation in addition to criminal liability under the Prevention of Organised Crime Act. For sports sector clients, see our sports law practice covering both sports integrity compliance and sports dispute resolution.
Problem Gambling and Operator Obligations
The GRA’s responsible gambling framework requires operators to implement problem gambling identification procedures including spending limit tools, time-out features, and self-exclusion registers accessible across all licensed platforms. Operators who identify customers displaying problem gambling behaviour must refer them to counselling services and must honour self-exclusion requests immediately. A failure to implement adequate responsible gambling controls is a licensing breach. For gambling regulatory compliance advice, our team provides GRA pre-licence and ongoing compliance advisory services.
