Almost every betting guide covering Kenya still names the Betting Control and Licensing Board. That body no longer exists. The regulator, the licensing rules and the tax on your winnings all changed between August 2025 and July 2026, and some of it is still in front of a judge. Here is the state of play.
18+ · bonus subject to wagering requirements · no prediction guarantees a win · sources checked 24 October 2026.
The Gambling Control Act 2025, Act No. 14 of 2025, repealed the Betting, Lotteries and Gaming Act and replaced the Betting Control and Licensing Board with the Gambling Regulatory Authority of Kenya. The Act received presidential assent on 7 August 2025 and commenced on 26 August 2025.
The handover was messy and it is still not finished. The old board suspended all annual licence applications in October 2025 while powers transferred. The Gambling Control (Licensing) Regulations 2026 were gazetted on 30 June 2026 as Legal Notice 111, setting licence terms of three years for casino and bookmaking and one year for totalisator. The Authority began operating under them on 3 July 2026 and was stopped by the High Court weeks later, in a judicial review challenging the new fee levels.
In August the freeze was partly lifted so the Authority could resume due diligence and enforce anti-money-laundering and consumer-protection rules, and on 24 August 2026 the court allowed it to apply the contested regulations, fee collection included, pending final judgment. We could not find the final ruling, which was expected in early October 2026. Treat the licence-fee position as unresolved, and be sceptical of any figure you see quoted for it.
One practical consequence for a player: licences issued under the old regime have been expiring and operators have had to reapply. If an operator matters to you, check its current standing rather than assuming a licence number published in 2024 still means anything.
The Finance Act 2026 was assented on 23 June 2026 and changed two things that affect your money directly.
Excise duty stayed at 5% but moved its base. It used to be calculated on the betting wallet; from 1 July 2026 it applies to amounts deposited for the purpose of betting, whether or not the funds sit in a wallet. Horse racing, previously excluded, is now inside the net. The same 5% applies to gaming deposits.
Withholding tax on winnings is back at 20%, for residents and non-residents alike. It had been introduced in 2018, repealed by the Finance Act 2025, and reinstated in 2026. The Act also redefined withdrawals as amounts paid or disbursed to the player account rather than amounts the player takes out, which closes the gap that let people defer tax by replaying their winnings.
Where we stop short. The reinstated definition of winnings refers to a payout from a lottery or prize competition by a licensee. Whether sports betting winnings fall inside that wording is not something we could establish from the text or from a KRA notice. We are not going to tell you 20% applies to your football accumulator when we cannot prove it. Ask the KRA or a tax adviser if the amount matters.
Two figures circulate widely and are wrong, so do not budget around them: there is no 7.5% duty on stakes, and no separate 5% tax on withdrawals.
Both wallets sit under the same ceilings, set with Central Bank of Kenya approval: KES 250,000 per transaction, KES 500,000 per day, and a maximum account balance of KES 500,000. Safaricom confirmed in October 2026 that these are set by the regulator, not by the operator, when a customer asked for them to be raised.
Safaricom handled 88.8% of mobile money transfers in the country as of June 2026, so M-Pesa is in practice the default rail whether you prefer it or not.
We are not publishing minimum deposits or Paybill fee tables. Neither the Authority nor Safaricom nor Airtel publishes a betting-specific figure we could read, and the numbers repeated by comparison sites contradict each other. Check inside your own app.
The shilling traded at roughly 130 KES to the US dollar in late October 2026.
In May 2025 the old board banned all gambling advertising for 30 days outright. That blanket ban is over, but what replaced it is stricter in a lasting way. Under the Gambling Control (Advertising) Regulations 2026 every advertisement needs approval from the Authority and classification by the Kenya Film Classification Board before a broadcaster may run it.
Banned outright: targeting minors or vulnerable people, using celebrities, influencers or content creators, and testimonials. An 18+ restriction notice is mandatory. Reports also describe a broadcast window closing between 06:00 and 22:00 except during live sport, and a ban on billboards near schools, though we could only confirm that through a single secondary source.
If you have noticed Kenyan sports influencers quietly dropping their betting partnerships, this is why.
Section 115 of the Gambling Control Act 2025 lets anyone who recognises that gambling is harming them sign a self-exclusion agreement covering all gambling premises and online gambling. You notify the Authority, which keeps a national register of self-exclusion notices and informs every licensee. Licensees must take reasonable steps to refuse service to excluded people.
The Conduct of Gambling Operations Regulations 2026 go further for online platforms: they must run a real-time self-exclusion mechanism linked to the national register, and offer a player savings tool.
We are not printing a helpline number here. Two different numbers circulate on commercial sites and we could not confirm either with the Authority. Get it from the regulator directly.
Gor Mahia won the 2025-26 FKF Premier League with 69 points from 34 matches, a record 22nd national title, five clear of AFC Leopards on 64. Bidco United and Sofapaka went down; Kariobangi Sharks survived a play-off.
The Mashemeji Derby reached its 99th edition on 26 April 2026 at Nyayo National Stadium, where Gor Mahia won 1-0 through captain Alpha Onyango. AFC Leopards had taken the previous meeting 1-0 at Kasarani in December 2025. Across 99 matches the head-to-head is close to even, roughly 35 wins each with a handful fewer for Leopards, though sources differ by a match or two.
The 2026-27 season only kicked off on 19 September 2026 after a court dispute over promotion and relegation criteria pushed it back three times from its original August date. Clubs may now register up to seven foreign players and field five. We have found no 100th derby yet, and no reliable current table, so do not trust a standings screenshot dated before late September.
This is the detail most previews get wrong. Kenya is a co-host of AFCON 2027, alongside Uganda and Tanzania, and is therefore already qualified. The tournament runs from 19 June to 17 July 2027. In the qualifying group Kenya plays, only the best of the other three teams goes through, which changes how you should read the table.
Kenya sits in Group D with South Africa, Guinea and Eritrea, and has 1 point from two matches: a 1-1 home draw with Eritrea on 26 September 2026, Ryan Ogam equalising, then a 1-0 defeat in Conakry on 1 October, Serhou Guirassy scoring after half an hour. Benni McCarthy is the head coach. Next up is South Africa away on 11 November 2026 — kick-off times were still awaiting CAF confirmation when we checked.
No. It was replaced by the Gambling Regulatory Authority of Kenya when the Gambling Control Act 2025 commenced on 26 August 2025. Any guide still naming the BCLB has not been updated in over a year.
Both, in principle. Excise duty of 5% applies to the amount you deposit for betting, since 1 July 2026. Withholding tax of 20% on winnings was reinstated by the Finance Act 2026, but whether sports betting winnings fall within the statutory definition is unclear and we will not guess.
Yes, and it is now backed by law. Self-exclusion under section 115 covers every licensee and online platform through a national register, not just the one site you ask.
A legal dispute over league composition and promotion and relegation criteria delayed the 2026-27 kick-off from 22 August to 19 September 2026.