M-Pesa and licensed bookmakers: what the regulator's list shows and what it leaves out

If you search for betting sites that accept M-Pesa, the regulator's list of licensed bookmakers will not answer the question. It records no payment method at all. It does give you a company name, a trading name and a domain, and those three items let you test any paybill number before you pay.

This guide covers what the list holds, where a licensed bookmaker's paybill numbers must be written, how to compare them, and the limits and charges Safaricom publishes for M-Pesa. For a column-by-column walk through the list itself, see how to read the regulator's list of licensed bookmakers.

What does the regulator's list record?

The Gambling Regulatory Authority of Kenya publishes a table headed "Licensed Gaming Companies for the Trading Period 2025/26". Its eight columns are No., Operators Name, Trading Name, BK, PG, PL, STATUS and DOMAINS. On 29 October 2026 the table held 187 rows, 170 marked Renewal and 17 marked New.

No column names M-Pesa, Airtel Money, a bank, a paybill, a till or a USSD code. The list therefore cannot tell you which licensees take mobile money, or whether a number sent to you belongs to any of them. The same rows, with domains as plain text, appear on this site's page of licensed bookmakers in Kenya according to the regulator's list.

Section 39(1) of the Gambling Control Act, 2025 sets out what the Authority's register of licences must hold: the licensee's identity, the licensed activity, the counties covered, the expiry date, and any suspension, revocation or amendment. Payment channels are not on that statutory list either.

Where must a licensed bookmaker write its paybill numbers?

The Gambling Control (Conduct of Gambling Operations) Regulations, 2026 (L.N. 112, as gazetted on 30 June 2026) fill part of the gap. Regulation 4(1) requires a licensee to submit its terms and conditions to the Authority for approval. Regulation 4(2)(e) says those terms must include "paybill numbers, shortcodes, USSD numbers for operations", and regulation 4(2)(f) adds the customer deposit mechanisms.

So the place to find a licensee's paybill is its own approved terms, published on the platform it runs. The Act also controls where the money ends up. Section 29(b) requires every licensee to keep an account with an authorised financial institution registered in Kenya, into which it pays all money from the licensed activity.

Section 73(4) lists the ways a licensee may receive your funds: a debit card, an electronic funds transfer, mobile money, a cash deposit, or another method the Authority approves. Section 72(7) bars a licensee from helping you bet with credit cards or advanced credit. Regulation 83 of L.N. 112 prohibits virtual assets for gambling or withdrawals unless the Authority approves.

How to check that a paybill belongs to the licensee

1. Find the bookmaker's row on the list and note the Operators Name, the Trading Name and the DOMAINS entry. Some rows show Nil in the DOMAINS column, which means the list gives no website for that licensee.
2. Type the listed domain into your browser yourself rather than following a link from an SMS, a WhatsApp message or an advert.
3. Open the terms and conditions on that domain and find the paybill numbers that regulation 4(2)(e) requires them to state.
4. Compare that number, digit by digit, with the one you were given. A number that appears only in a message, a social media post or a chat with a self-styled agent cannot be matched to the licensee's terms.
5. Pay through the M-Pesa app, USSD *334# or the SIM toolkit by entering the Business Number, the Account Number and the amount, as Safaricom's Pay to Paybill page describes.
6. Before entering your PIN, read the name shown. Safaricom's Hakikisha service lets customers confirm the recipient's name before completing a transaction, and Safaricom says it is available for Pay Bill payments.
7. If that name matches neither the Operators Name nor the Trading Name, cancel and ask the bookmaker's customer care, in writing, to explain the difference.

Keep the M-Pesa confirmation message after every deposit. It is your own record of what you paid, to whom and when.

Paying the wrong business number is harder to undo than a slip between two phones. Safaricom's reversal page limits the do-it-yourself reversal, made by forwarding the original message to 456, to Safaricom-to-Safaricom person-to-person transfers within 24 hours. Its Secure M-PESA page lists other routes, including a Safaricom shop and customer care on 100 or 200.

M-Pesa limits and charges published by Safaricom

Safaricom's consumer tariffs and limits page sets the ceilings below. They apply to your M-Pesa account, whatever a bookmaker allows on its own platform.

Illustrative example: you move KES 2,000 from your betting account to M-Pesa and then take it out as cash. KES 2,000 falls in Safaricom's KES 1,501-2,500 band, where the table shows a KES 29 charge for withdrawal at an agent. Any charge the bookmaker applies to the withdrawal is set in its own terms, not on Safaricom's page.

Section 75(c) of the Act lets a licensee use money in your player account to pay bank charges for deposits received and funds withdrawn. The Act does not fix those charges, so read the deposit and withdrawal sections of the terms before you pay in.

The M-Pesa ceilings also meet the payout rules. Under the Third Schedule to L.N. 112, a prize of up to KES 500,000 goes straight to the mobile money wallet or betting account you registered, one of up to KES 5,000,000 goes by mobile money or bank transfer, and anything larger goes by bank transfer only. Because one M-Pesa transaction tops out at KES 250,000, ask the bookmaker in writing how it will pay a larger win; the deadlines are set out in how long a bookmaker may take to pay out.

What role does the Central Bank of Kenya play?

The Central Bank of Kenya regulates the payment side, not the betting side. Its National Payments System page says mobile money operators are authorised as payment service providers under the National Payment System Act 2011 and the National Payment System Regulations 2014. The same page links to CBK's directory of authorised payment service providers.

CBK names the protection of payment systems from criminal abuse, such as money laundering and fraud, among its oversight objectives. Licensing bookmakers is a separate job. Section 10(b)-(c) of the Gambling Control Act gives the Gambling Regulatory Authority the power to regulate gambling and issue gambling licences.

This splits problems in two. A fault in an M-Pesa transaction itself belongs with the mobile money provider, while a dispute about a bet, a balance or a payout goes first to the bookmaker and then to the Authority, as set out in how to complain about a betting company.

What the list and M-Pesa will not tell you

A matching paybill shows only that you are paying the licensee. It says nothing about how a particular bet will be settled, or about tax: deductions from a payout are explained in withholding tax on betting winnings. It also cannot prove that the licence is current, because the list publishes no expiry dates.

Regulation 102 of L.N. 112 makes it an offence to provide payment processing, hosting or domain services that enable an unlicensed gambling platform. That rule is aimed at whoever supplies the service to the platform. The safer habit for you stays the same: pay only numbers you have matched to a licensee's own terms.