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Kenya’s online betting operators have days to find as much as KES 55 million for a licence and annual operating fee, even though the regulations setting those charges are still being challenged in court.
The immediate deadline falls this week.
On Monday, 24 August, the High Court cleared the Gambling Regulatory Authority of Kenya to begin collecting the new fees after temporarily blocking the increases earlier this month. The decision leaves operators with little room to delay while the wider legal dispute continues.
The Authority told the court that 246 licence applications had been held up because it was unable to legally collect payment.
Now it can.
For an online bookmaker, the new regime means a KES 50 million licence fee, a KES 5 million application fee and another KES 5 million each year to operate. Renewal is set at KES 12.5 million.
That is a major change from the framework published for public consultation in March.
The fees changed sharply after consultation
The regulator’s draft had proposed an KES 8 million licence fee for online bookmakers and KES 6 million for online casinos and lotteries.
The final regulations, gazetted on 29 June, put the online bookmaker and casino licence fees at KES 50 million. The online lottery fee became KES 20 million.
The licence period also changed. The draft allowed three years for an online gambling licence. The gazetted rules reduced that to one year.
That distinction matters. The higher licence cost is no longer spread across several years.
Other financial requirements increased too. The minimum gambling capital for an online bookmaker doubled from KES 50 million to KES 100 million. Public lotteries moved from KES 50 million to KES 150 million. Commercial prize competitions went from KES 1 million to KES 100 million.
A proposed hybrid online licence covering several gambling products was also removed from the final schedule.
The Association of Gaming Operators Kenya had objected to a proposed 10% levy on advertising expenditure. The final rules set that levy at 6%.
The Authority maintains that public participation took place and that parliamentary committees were involved before the regulations were issued.
The applicants contest the legal basis of the rules. One part of their challenge questions whether the Cabinet Secretary who gazetted them had the necessary authority.
That issue has not been decided.
The court case is not finished
The dispute is being heard as Judicial Review E251 of 2026, brought by Thomas Buckley Opar Owuor and Ken Brance against the Prime Cabinet Secretary, the Authority and the Attorney General.
Justice William Musyoka initially granted a stay on 20 July that halted the licensing regulations. The Authority sought to have that order removed.
On 7 August, the court refused to lift the stay entirely but narrowed it. The suspension remained focused on the increased fees and capital requirements, while the rest of the regulatory framework returned to effect.
Monday’s ruling now allows the Authority to collect the disputed fees.
The underlying case is still alive. Submissions are due on 21 September, with judgment scheduled for 2 October.
There is another complication. The judge has already questioned whether the applicants have sufficient standing to bring the case because neither holds a gambling licence. That issue was left unresolved because the Authority did not pursue it.
For operators, that leaves an awkward position. They must comply with charges that could still be struck down later.
The Authority has undertaken to refund fees if the court ultimately invalidates the regulations.
The deadline is Friday
The new rules gave existing licences issued under the previous Betting, Lotteries and Gaming Act a 60-day transition period after publication of the regulations in the Kenya Gazette.
The Gazette supplement is dated 29 June, placing the deadline on 28 August. The Authority has interpreted the period as beginning on 30 June.
Either calculation puts the deadline at the end of this week.
Operators that fail to apply under the new regime risk operating without a valid licence.
The financial barrier is only one part of the change.
The wider regulatory package also ties gambling operations more closely to Kenya’s payment and monitoring infrastructure.
Before beginning operations, licensees must connect to the Kenya Revenue Authority’s tax system and the Authority’s central monitoring platform. They must also disclose every paybill they intend to use.
Payment providers cannot process or settle gambling transactions without regulatory approval. The Authority can withdraw that approval, potentially cutting an operator off from its payment channels.
That gives enforcement a practical lever beyond the licence itself.
Safaricom is involved in the court proceedings as an interested party, alongside the Association of Gaming Operators Kenya. The significance is hard to miss in a market where M-Pesa is a major route for gambling payments.
The new rules also impose technical requirements on operators. Gambling data must be protected in transit and at rest, while data must generally be stored and processed on servers in Kenya unless the Authority grants a written exemption.
Those requirements are already in force.
The fees are the part still being fought over.
For operators, the distinction may not matter much this week. They still have to decide whether to pay, apply and operate under rules whose most expensive provisions are due to face a final court test in October.
Source: tech-ish.com
