Kenya's June 30 Licensing Deadline Lands With Its New Regulator in Court

Kenyan gambling operators have until June 30 to secure licences under a regulatory regime that did not exist a year ago, and the man meant to run it is fighting a court petition over whether he is legally allowed to hold the job. The Gambling Control Act 2025, Act No. 14 of 2025, scrapped the Betting, Lotteries and Gaming Act of 1966 and replaced the Betting Control and Licensing Board with a new body, the Gambling Regulatory Authority (GRA). Every operator in one of Africa's largest betting markets now has to refile under categories and fees that did not apply before, against a deadline that arrives this week.

John Mutua, CEO of the Association of Gaming Operators Kenya (AGOK), played down the time pressure. "Yes, it is only a few days to the deadline but I'm 100% sure the GRA will give directions that ensures that there will be no vacuum on expiry of licenses," he told iGaming Expert, adding that the regulator "will duly provide the guidance on the process." Under the new act, land-based and online operators must hold licences matched to their specific product, and no gambling activity is permitted without a valid GRA licence. The law also creates distinct categories that the old framework never named, covering online betting, gaming software supply, equipment manufacturing and nationwide prize promotions.

The numbers operators now face

The headline change is cost and ownership. Foreign investors face a minimum capital requirement of KSh 100 million (about $775,000), and at least 30% of a licensed company's shares must be held by Kenyan citizens, a local-content rule the previous regime did not impose. Security deposits run as high as KSh 200 million (about $1.55 million) for online gambling and national lottery licences under the bill's schedule. Application fees alone span KSh 10,000 to KSh 1 million depending on category, before investigation, grant and annual renewal charges.

Tax moved at the same time, though in the operators' favor at the margin. From July 1, 2025, Kenya cut excise on betting from 15% of the amount staked to 5% on deposits into a player wallet, and replaced the 20% withholding on winnings with a 5% charge on withdrawals. A 15% gaming tax on gross gaming revenue applies across betting, lotteries and gaming. The Kenya Revenue Authority has linked its systems directly to operator paybill numbers to deduct the deposit and withdrawal levies in real time, which removes the collection gap that defined earlier tax fights.

Mutua also addressed a discrepancy in the licence rolls. Roughly 100 firms held online betting licences for the 2025/26 financial year, yet reports put the number actually trading around 30. He disputed the low figure but conceded the gap exists: "Some of those who had acquired licenses before did it for speculation or were unable to get investors and also it is unclear why others hold licenses that are not operational." The defunct BCLB published 99 approved firms last year. Mutua argues the new act "addresses this directly and seeks to clean this up" so genuine operators get an enabling environment, which means the relicensing exercise is also a cull.

A regulator under legal cloud, and a precedent that cost the state

At the center of the rollout sits Peter Maina Karimi, named GRA director general on February 26, 2026 by board chairman Joseph Kirui Limo after a recruitment process that began in January. A constitutional petition before High Court Judge Patricia Nyaundi argues his appointment breached the act's eligibility rules. The law bars anyone who has been a director, employee or shareholder of a gambling company from the regulator's board unless they left at least five years earlier. Karimi founded Acumen Communications Limited, which launched the mCHEZA betting platform, and ran mCHEZA as CEO from its December 2015 launch. He has contested the claim that he was a director of a licensed entity within the five-year window.

David Sarinke, partner at McKay Advocates, told iGaming Expert that the case is unlikely to freeze the licensing round. "Public officers are subject to minimum qualifications requirements which if not met, their appointment can be challenged in court," he said, but "usually in these circumstances, the person will remain in office until a finding is made that he shouldn't be." Even an adverse ruling, Sarinke argued, "shouldn't affect any corporate decisions of the GRA," because the director general implements board decisions rather than makes them, and "the law cannot jeopardize operators who got licenses during the tenure." A resolution could take a year or more.

Kenya has run this script before, and the last version emptied the market. President Uhuru Kenyatta's Finance Bill 2017 set a 35% tax on betting, lotteries and gaming. In July 2019 the KRA suspended the licences of 27 operators in a row over tax. The two largest, SportPesa and Betin, exited. SportPesa had reported KSh 20 billion (about $155 million at today's rate) in 2018 revenue and KSh 9 billion in gross profit before it walked, a loss of payroll, sponsorship and tax that pushed the government to cut the headline GGR rate to 15% and later trim the stake tax to 7.5%. Most firms eventually returned. The lesson the current regime absorbed is visible in its design: lower per-transaction tax, automated collection at the mobile-money layer, and a higher barrier to entry rather than a punitive rate.

For affiliates and B2B suppliers, the practical signal is consolidation. A field where 100 licences map to perhaps 30 live operators is about to be pruned, and the KSh 100 million capital floor plus 30% local-ownership rule favors incumbents and well-funded entrants over speculative licence holders. That pattern tracks tax-driven shakeouts elsewhere on the continent, including a Tanzania gaming tax reform that reset operator economics. Payment-side pressure is rising too, seen in the Bank of Ghana crypto crackdown on gambling rails. Kenya's market remains mobile-money-driven through M-Pesa, Airtel Money and T-Kash, so the volume that flows over rails like pawaPay's African betting payments is the same volume the KRA now taps directly. Operators that survive the June 30 filing will trade in a smaller, more capitalized, more closely metered market than the one they joined.