Due to the failure of paying a licence fee of Sh100,000 and provision of bank guarantee, 24 betting firms are facing licence revocation in Kenya. This reprehension will be effective till June 2023.
According to Peter Mbugi, Chief Executive of Kenya’s Betting Control and Licensing Board (BCLB), only 35 out of the 59 firms cleared to operate paid the licence fee and provided a Sh250,000 bank guarantee.
“We have licensed 35 firms as of today, we had 59 applications but the rest are yet to pay for the licence and provide the bank guarantee,” Mr Mbugi said.
The lack of cooperation by the betting firms is affecting the progress of the industry. The failure to pay the licence fee and provide bank guarantee has debilitated the revenue of the industry.
“Licensed operators are increasing but most of them are doing zero-sum business. The market is no longer expanding.”
Betika, Sportika, Dafabet, Betafriq and Bangbet are some of the firms licensed to operate till June, 2023.
Although the government tried to regulate and monitor the industry by taxing and making strict laws. The number of betting firms has increased. 118 betting firms were licensed last year.
The heavy taxation by the government has drastically reduced the number of punters. The average amount spent to bet per punter declined to Sh939 last year from Sh2,559 in 2019. while the percentage of gamblers who rely on betting to pay daily bills fell by half to 11.2 percent in the period under review.
The firms are also required to get clearance from the Financial Reporting Centre before being licensed to operate.