Abroad-based online betting firms without operations in Kenya face fines of up to Sh50 million if they fail to block residents of the East African nation from gambling on their sites in new rules aimed at plugging potential revenue leaks.
The new regulations compel the betting firms to install geo-blocking systems to ensure that Kenyan residents cannot access their sites.
The Gaming Regulatory Authority of Kenya (GRAK) says that the requirement will apply to foreign-based betting firms that have no local operations but opt to hold a betting licence for the Kenyan market.
Geo-blocking relies on tools like Internet Protocol tracking and location data to identify where a user is connecting from. If the user is in a restricted region, the system automatically blocks or limits access.
Compelling the foreign-based online betting firms to install geo-blocking features will ensure that Kenya does not lose out on taxes that gamblers pay from every betting stake and winning bet, and also the revenues that the firms will rake in from Kenyans.
“A foreign-based operator shall implement technical measures, including but not limited to Internet Protocol Geo-blocking and Identity Verification to ensure that persons resident in Kenya cannot access their gambling platforms,” the new rules by GRAK said.
“The Authority shall conduct quarterly technical audits of the operator’s digital perimeter to verify the effectiveness of the geofencing measures.”
The Gambling Control Act, 2025 provides for a fine of up to Sh50 million on betting firms that breach the laws on operations of foreign-based gambling firms.
Besides protecting against revenue losses, the requirement will also protect gamblers in Kenya given that the betting regulator had last year flagged gambling firms illegally operating within Kenya’s internet domain but withholding payouts to winners.
However, punters can sometimes bypass geo-blocks using Virtual Private Networks while some of the offshore betting sites accept alternative payment methods like cryptocurrency, leading to tax revenue losses.
The defunct Betting Control and Licensing Board (BCLB) had last year flagged more than 58 betting companies for illegally operating within Kenya’s internet domain.
BCLB, which was replaced by GRAK, said that the firms mostly used STK Push (SIM Toolkit Push) to accept deposits but then withheld payouts, throwing punters into losses and with no legal recourse.
Geo-blocking helps governments to guard against revenue losses in the betting industry by restricting local access to unlicensed, offshore betting platforms.
Blocking the foreign-based online firms then forces punters to use local, licensed operators that are obligated to remit levies, boosting tax revenue collections.
Punters in Kenya pay an excise tax of five percent on every betting stake and a further 20 percent withholding tax on each winning bet, giving the Kenya Revenue Authority billions of shillings in tax revenues.
Gambling firms pay a betting tax at the rate of 15 percent of the betting revenue, corporate tax at the rate of 30 percent on their profits, and income tax at the rate of 16 percent.
Kenya currently has a very large population, especially of youthful gamblers in Africa, way ahead of bigger economies like South Africa and Nigeria. A growing chain of investors has been drawn by this gambling craze where hundreds of billions of shillings are staked annually.
Data by the Kenya Revenue Authority showed that Kenyans wagered a record Sh330.5 billion in the year to June 30, 2026, revealing the depth of the country’s betting craze. A recent survey by research firm GeoPoll shows that 64 percent of Kenyans interviewed in the survey placed a bet in the past 12 months, ahead of 60 percent of respondents in Ghana and 58 percent in South Africa.
