Betting sites in Kenya: how licensing works in 2026

A betting site may take bets in Kenya only if the Gambling Regulatory Authority has licensed it. Section 28(1) of the Gambling Control Act, 2025 says no gambling activity or service may be offered unless it is licensed under the Act. For a bookmaker, that licence shows up as a number in the column headed BK on the regulator's list, explained in what a BK licence is and what the number means.

This guide follows the licence from the statute book to the screen of your phone. It covers who issues it, what a company must prove to get it, how to read the published list, what the site must then show and do, and where to turn when something goes wrong.

It does not rank bookmakers or point you to any of them. Each figure comes from the Act, the 2026 Regulations as gazetted, the regulator's website or the Kenya Revenue Authority, and the sources are listed at the end.

Who regulates betting sites in Kenya?

The regulator is the Gambling Regulatory Authority of Kenya, set up by section 6(1) of the Gambling Control Act, 2025. Section 6(3) makes it the legal successor of the Betting Control and Licensing Board, the body many bettors still know as BCLB. Section 6(4) places its headquarters in Nairobi.

Section 10 lists what the Authority does. Its functions include regulating and controlling gambling, issuing the licences the Act prescribes, and receiving and deciding complaints from the public about games of chance.

The Act was assented to on 7 August 2025, published in Kenya Gazette Supplement No. 141 on 12 August 2025, and commenced on 26 August 2025. Section 120 repealed the Betting, Lotteries and Gaming Act (Cap. 131), the law the old Board worked under.

The detail sits in five sets of regulations, made on 29 June 2026 and gazetted on 30 June 2026. They cover licensing, the conduct of gambling operations, foreign-based operators, advertising and the appeals tribunal, as the table shows.

Taxes run on a separate track. The Kenya Revenue Authority collects them under the Income Tax Act and the Excise Duty Act, while section 121(6)(a) of the Gambling Control Act keeps the old Act's betting, gaming, lottery and prize competition tax sections alive until new provisions are enacted.

What does a bookmaker licence involve?

Section 2 of the Act treats as a bookmaker anyone carrying on the business of receiving and negotiating bets. Its online version carries on betting by remote communications, a category that takes in virtual games and virtual sports.

Section 58 provides four kinds of bookmaker's licence. They are an on-the-course licence for authorised race meetings, an off-the-course licence for authorised betting premises, a licence covering both, and an online bookmakers licence; section 67(1) lists that last one beside the online lottery and online casino licences.

Section 29 sets two conditions before any licence is granted. The applicant must be a body corporate in which Kenyan citizens hold at least 30% of the shares, and it must pay all money from the licensed activity into an account with an authorised financial institution registered in Kenya.

Section 79(1) allows a foreign-based operator an online licence only if it is registered in Kenya with a physical address in the country. L.N. 111 regulation 11 requires an online applicant to present a gambling control system compatible with the Authority's central management system, anti-money-laundering evidence, and the proposed platform, domain name and games provider.

Fees, capital and security

The Licensing Regulations and the Third Schedule to the Act set the money a bookmaker must pay or put up. The figures differ sharply between online and land-based operators.

The security is not a fee. Section 40(2) lets the Authority use the bond or guarantee to meet a licensee's liabilities that arise from the licensed activity, while gambling capital under section 41 is proof that the company has enough money to set up its operations.

How long a licence lasts

Section 31(3) of the Act sets a default term of 36 months unless regulations prescribe another period. The Fourth Schedule to L.N. 111 does prescribe one: an online gambling licence runs for one year, both when new and on renewal, and a bookmaking licence for three years.

Renewal is not automatic. Regulation 24(2) requires the application at least 90 days before expiry, and under regulation 24(3) a successful applicant receives the renewed licence within 30 days.

The move from the old law had its own deadline. Section 122 kept licences issued under the repealed Act valid for their term, but L.N. 111 regulation 30 limited them to 60 days from the publication of the Regulations on 30 June 2026, and required holders to apply afresh within that time.

How is the regulator's list built, and how do you read it?

Two different records are easy to confuse. Section 39(1) requires the Authority to keep a register of licences showing each licensee's identity and registration number, the activity licensed, the counties covered, the expiry date, any revocation or suspension, and any amendment. Section 39(2) opens that register to the public at reasonable times on payment of a prescribed fee.

What most people see is a shorter and free document: the web list on gra.go.ke. It is headed "Licensed Gaming Companies for the Trading Period 2025/26", and the site's own content system records the licensed-operators page as last modified on 19 March 2026.

When this guide was checked on 29 October 2026, the page still carried that 2025/26 list. Its last change came before the 2026 Regulations were published, so it cannot show which companies hold licences issued under them.

The eight columns

The table has eight columns, published as No., Operators Name, Trading Name, BK, PG, PL, STATUS and DOMAINS. The page does not explain BK, PG or PL. The Act's licence categories are bookmaker, public gaming and public lottery, and the column headed BK carries bookmaker licence numbers.

The No. column only counts lines. It skips 119, so the 187 lines are numbered 1 to 188, and a low number says nothing about size or standing.

A line can hold one, two or three licence numbers. A cell reading Nil shows no number for that licence type, and the mix across the whole list looks like this.

So 147 lines carry a number under BK and 40 do not. A company on the list is therefore not always a bookmaker.

The STATUS column holds one of two words: Renewal on 170 lines and New on 17. Neither word tells you whether a licence is in force today, and the list gives no expiry dates, although section 39(1)(d) requires the full register to record them.

The DOMAINS column shows website addresses as the companies gave them, some with https:// or a trailing slash. On 62 lines the cell reads Nil, so those lines offer no website to match against.

Reading one line correctly

Match the company name first, then the trading name, then the domain. The same trading name can appear on two lines under different companies, and on some lines the domain uses a different word from the trading name.

Copy licence numbers exactly as printed. A few BK cells begin with a stray apostrophe before the digits.

A full walk-through of each column is in how to read the GRA list of licensed bookmakers.

What must a licensed betting site show and do?

Section 36(3) requires the holder of an online gambling licence to display the licence on its online platform. Look for it in the footer, the about page or the terms, next to the company's legal name.

L.N. 112 regulation 23 requires a licensee to display clearly the odds, rules and terms that apply to each bet, and bars it from changing a bet's terms once accepted. Regulation 24 then requires winning bets to be settled promptly under the published rules.

Checks come before play. Regulation 82 forbids online gambling without an identity check, location verification and an age assurance check, done with independent and electronically verifiable data before the account is activated and before any deposit; section 72(3) of the Act separately requires proof of age of majority before registration.

Gambling is for adults of the age of majority, which in Kenya is eighteen. The 2026 Conduct of Gambling Operations Regulations (r.92) bar persons under eighteen from gambling and from gambling promotion.

Regulation 84 requires real-time tools for players. They include daily, weekly and monthly deposit limits, loss, session and expenditure limits, reality-check pop-ups, and self-exclusion of at least 24 hours linked to the national register.

Self-exclusion through the Authority itself uses Form 1 in the First Schedule to L.N. 112. Under regulation 70 you attach a copy of your national ID or passport and choose six months, one year, two years or an indefinite period.

Three more rules shape the account. Section 68(8) requires a customer care centre within Kenya, section 71(1) fixes the minimum online stake at KES 20, and sections 72(7) and 74 forbid a licensee to advance credit or accept credit cards for betting.

A step-by-step routine built on these points is in how to check if a betting site is licensed in Kenya.

What happens to your deposits, winnings and balances?

Under section 72(1) you can bet with a licensee only after registering and opening an account with it. Section 73 then allows a wager only if your account already holds enough approved funds, paid in by debit card, electronic transfer, mobile money, cash or another approved method.

Your balance has legal cover. Section 76(2) requires the money a licensee holds for players to equal, at every moment, the sum of all player balances, with any shortfall made good from the company's own money within 30 days of the month end.

L.N. 112 regulation 41(f) requires online systems to hold player funds apart from operating funds. Regulation 83 bans anonymous gambling and the use of virtual assets such as crypto for gambling or withdrawals unless the Authority approves.

How fast winnings must be paid

Section 70(1) requires a monetary online prize to be credited to your account within two days. The Third Schedule to L.N. 112 then sets payment tiers, and the bigger the prize, the more checks come first.

Section 70(6) requires proof of age of majority before any prize is remitted. If a licensee fails to pay winnings within 14 days, L.N. 112 regulation 101 makes it liable to a penalty of 5% of the winnings, payable to the Authority, and to interest of 5% per day for the next 21 days, payable to you.

Dormant accounts and closures

An account with no recorded transaction for three months must be paid out to its holder under section 77(1). Money owed to a player who cannot be traced for five years goes to the Unclaimed Financial Assets Authority under section 77(2).

A suspension or revocation leaves the company liable for what it owed you beforehand, under sections 34(5) and 33(6). Neither the Act nor the Licensing and Conduct Regulations set up a fund that pays players if the company cannot.

Which taxes apply to betting in Kenya?

Two taxes touch the bettor directly: excise duty on money deposited for betting, and withholding tax on money paid out. The operators' own betting tax stays in force under section 121(6)(a) of the Gambling Control Act until new provisions are enacted.

Excise duty on betting moved from 15% of the amount wagered or staked to 5% of the amount deposited into a customer's betting wallet on 1 July 2025, according to the Kenya Revenue Authority's notice on the Finance Act, 2025. From 1 July 2026, section 36 of the Finance Act, 2026 reworded the base as the amount "deposited for betting purposes".

The same section added a wide definition of "amount deposited". It takes in all money or money's worth made available for betting to a licensee, whether the player or the operator provides it, and whether or not it sits in a wallet or becomes chips, tokens, tickets or credits.

Withholding tax falls on "withdrawals". Section 2 of the Finance Act, 2026 rewrote that Income Tax Act definition to mean money, a cash equivalent or money's worth paid or disbursed to a player's account by a person licensed under the Gambling Control Act, 2025.

The rate on withdrawals is 5% for residents under paragraph 5(i) of Head B of the Third Schedule to the Income Tax Act, and 5% for non-residents under paragraph 3(i). The payer deducts it under section 35, and section 35(5A) has the Commissioner pay it into the Sports, Arts and Social Development Fund.

A 20% rate now applies only to "winnings", which the Finance Act, 2026 defines as a pay-out from a lottery or prize competition. Betting payouts are withdrawals, not winnings.

Illustrative example. You deposit KES 1,000 for betting and later withdraw KES 2,000. Excise at 5% of the amount deposited comes to KES 50, and withholding at 5% of a KES 2,000 withdrawal comes to KES 100.

The example only shows the rates at work. Your transaction statement shows what the operator actually deducted, and the rate history with each step sourced is in withholding tax on betting winnings in Kenya.

How do complaints and disputes work?

Complaints start with the operator. L.N. 112 regulation 9 requires every licensee to set up a customer care centre before it starts operating, to resolve complaints before they reach the Authority, and to report matters raised by the public to the Authority within two days.

A complaint still unresolved after 72 hours, or one you ask in writing to escalate, must go to the Authority under regulation 9(2)(e). The Authority's toll-free line is 0800-723-770, as shown on the regulator's website.

Above the Authority sits the Gambling Appeals Tribunal, set up by section 88 of the Act. It hears appeals against the Authority's decisions and complaints about the outcome of gambling transactions and the working of gambling machines.

Section 80 gives a party to an online gambling dispute 14 days from the date of the dispute to appeal to the Tribunal. A Tribunal decision can then go to the High Court within 14 days under section 90.

What to put in a complaint, and how to keep your evidence, is covered in how to complain about a betting company in Kenya.

What about unlicensed and foreign betting sites?

Offering gambling without a valid licence is an offence under section 98. A first offence carries a fine of up to KES 3,000,000, imprisonment of up to three years or both, and a repeat offence up to KES 5,000,000, five years or both.

Section 79(3) adds a specific offence for a foreign-based operator that offers online gambling in Kenya without a licence. The penalty is up to KES 2,000,000, two years or both for a natural person, and up to KES 50,000,000 for a company.

L.N. 112 regulation 102 reaches the businesses around an illegal site. Providing hosting, servers, domain registration, payment processing or technical support to enable an unlicensed gambling platform is itself an offence.

For a bettor, the practical point is that an unlicensed site sits outside every rule on this page. It has no line on the list to check, no security bond with the Authority and no customer care duty the regulator can enforce.

The position of offshore sites is set out in foreign betting sites in Kenya: what the law says.

A short check before you deposit

1. Find the licence and the company name on the site, as section 36(3) requires.
2. Find the same company on the regulator's list and note the number under BK.
3. Compare the address in your browser with the DOMAINS cell on that line.
4. Check that the site asks for identity and age before taking your first deposit.
5. If anything does not match, call the Authority on 0800-723-770 before paying in.