Moses Kuria, Member of Parliament of Gantudu South, shared that it would be a long shot for the Kenyan authorities to pit some actual limits or fully eradicate gambling and other forms of betting activities in the country, especially when taking into account the state which the local economy is currently in.
MP Kuria believes, that the links between the young generation and the betting culture are already so tight that it would be very hard for the authorities to stop the gambling operations which have been flourishing in Kenya for some time. According to him, betting could not be stopped, but the Government could try to make the best of it.
He reminded that only a week ago, a supplementary budget was passed, with the KES6 billion that are expected to be derived from sports betting planned to be redirected as funding of Universal Healthcare.
The Kenyan lawmaker further shared that he would initiate a motion for an amendment to protect the local betting community from the Government’s pressure, insisting that the negative trend could be turned into a positive thing.
Gambling Operators in Kenya Face Tougher Regulatory Action
The announcement of Mr. Kuria has come at a time when the Parliament awaits to start consultation and debate on a newly proposed piece of gambling legislation which seeks to make online betting through mobile phones illegal on the territory of the country. In case that the proposed bill is passed into law, then local users who are caught using their mobile phones to place bets would face massive KEW2-billion monetary fines or go to jail for the maximum two-year term. At the same time, the betting operator which is found guilty of breaching the rules would be imposed a KES50-million fine.
A few months earlier, in April 2019, the Kenyan Interior Cabinet Secretary Fred Matiang’i revealed that all companies which offer gambling services in the country would have to undergo obligatory vetting process or otherwise their operations would be suspended as of July 1st.
As CasinoGamesPro already reported, on July 1st the Betting Control and Licensing Board revealed that it postponed the renewal of operation licenses for 13 casinos, 6 lottery operators and 8 betting companies. Apart from that, 19 betting operators got rejected for license renewal, with their services and hierarchy still being subjected to full security vetting.
The authorities have unveiled that they are set to make sure that the sector is well controlled and regulated when it comes to affordability, accessibility and availability. Kenyan regulators have been trying to limit the accessibility of the gambling services to local customers, as gambling operators have been blamed for being taking over younger audiences by making their services attractive to players at a lower age.
