Betting companies face higher operating costs following plans to introduce a licence fee of up to Sh300,000 for key employees.
The permit fee for foreigners holding the key roles will be Sh300,000, while Kenyans will pay Sh50,000, under the Gambling Control Licensing Regulations, 2026.
Foreign shareholders or directors will pay Sh300,000 for a licence, while the locals will part with Sh100,000. Additionally, there will be an application fee of between Sh10,000 and Sh50,000.
Betting firms will pay the licence fees for their staff, which is expected to significantly drive the cost of business in the multibillion-shilling gambling sector, whose popularity has risen in recent years.
Betting firms currently pay three taxes, besides annual licensing and compliance fees.
Kenya is now pushing to emulate developed economies like the United Kingdom, Malta, and Singapore that compel key personnel at betting firms to have licences.
The Gambling Regulatory Authority of Kenya (GRAK) has not indicated the positions of the personnel who qualify as key employees. However, in developed economies, these include the CEO, the officer in charge of anti-money laundering, and the head of IT.
‘Key gambling employees shall apply for a licence by submitting an application to the Authority in Form 14 set out in the First Schedule.
An application under subregulation (1) shall be accompanied by- (a) the application fee prescribed in the Second Schedule of these Regulations,’ GRAK says in the regulations.
The regulations are currently undergoing public scrutiny as Kenya races to slam the brakes on the runaway betting craze.
Besides the licence, these employees must also submit a certificate of good conduct and a tax compliance certificate from the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA), allowing GRAK to further vet the staff.
The overall costs of the licence fee for the key staff will add to the high operational costs that betting firms face. The firm have on several occasions decried the heavy taxation, with some closing shops as scores of others battle tax disputes with KRA.
Currently, betting firms pay a 15 percent tax on gross gaming revenue, a corporate tax of 30 percent on profits, and income tax at the rate of 16 percent. They are required to remit the taxes every day by 1 am.
Several firms have exited the Kenyan market in the past five years, citing the high taxation that they alleged significantly hit their businesses.
Betsafe exited the local market in May last year, becoming the latest to close shop after the high-profile exits of Betin and SportPesa in 2020.
The government has, in the past few years, been scrambling to halt the betting craze in Kenya, albeit with limited success.
A high rate of unemployment and the quest to make quick cash are behind the betting craze as more Kenyans turn to gambling as a source of income.
A report by the Central Bank of Kenya shows that Kenyans spent an average of Sh1,825 on betting in 2024, with the country being home to the highest number of youthful gamblers on the continent, ahead of bigger economies like Nigeria and South Africa.