Excise duty on betting in Kenya: the 5% charge on deposits explained

What is the excise duty rate on betting in Kenya?

The rate is 5%. Paragraph 4A of Part II of the First Schedule to the Excise Duty Act (Cap. 472), in the edition in force from 1 July 2025, charges betting at "five percent on the amount deposited into a customer's betting wallet". The amendment note under the paragraph credits that wording to section 46 of the Finance Act, 2025 (Act No. 9 of 2025).

The key word is deposited. Before July 2025 the duty fell on each amount wagered or staked; since then it falls on money going into the account. The other taxes met later in the cycle are traced in how a bet is taxed from stake to payout.

Neighbouring paragraphs use the same rate. Paragraph 4B charges gaming at 5% of the amount deposited into a customer's gaming wallet, paragraph 4C charges 5% of the amount paid to enter a prize competition, and paragraph 4D charges 5% of the price of a lottery ticket, charitable lotteries excluded.

What did the Finance Act, 2026 change?

The rate stayed at 5% and the wording of the base changed. Section 36(b)(i) of the Finance Act, 2026 replaced "into a customer's betting wallet" in paragraph 4A with "for betting purposes". Section 36(b)(ii) deleted the proviso that had kept horse racing out of the paragraph.

Section 36(c) then rewrote the definitions in Part III of the Schedule. It deleted "amount deposited into a customer's betting wallet", which had meant money a customer transferred into the wallet kept by a licensed operator. In its place came a wider term, "amount deposited".

The new term covers money or money's worth paid, transferred, credited or otherwise made available for betting or gambling to a person licensed under the Gambling Control Act. It applies whether the amount is provided by a player or the operator, whether or not it is held in an account, and whether or not it is converted into chips, tokens, tickets or credits. Section 1 of the Finance Act, 2026 brought these sections into operation on 1 July 2026.

On the face of the text, the new definition brings amounts the operator itself makes available for betting into the base, not only money the player sends. The same section changed paragraph 4B so that gaming excise now attaches to the amount deposited for gambling purposes.

The public notices page on kra.go.ke carried no notice explaining the 2026 wording when it was checked for this guide on 29 October 2026. The Kenya Law edition quoted above is dated 1 July 2025 and so predates the change.

Who pays the duty and who sends it to KRA?

The licensed operator charges the duty and remits it to the Kenya Revenue Authority. KRA's public notice on the Finance Act, 2025 requires remittance within twenty-four hours from the closure of transactions of the day for betting and gaming. Other excisable goods and services listed in the notice remit on or before the 20th of the following month.

The law fixes the rate and the person who remits, not the way the operator recovers the cost from customers. An operator can deduct the duty from the money you send or carry it from its own funds. Your deposit receipt and account statement show which happened.

How does the duty change what reaches your account?

Illustrative example. You send KES 1,000 to a licensed operator. Excise at 5% of the amount deposited is KES 1,000 x 5% = KES 50.

If the operator recovers the duty from the deposit, KES 950 is left to bet with. If it carries the duty itself, the full KES 1,000 shows in the account and the KES 50 still goes to KRA. A smaller deposit scales the same way, so KES 100 carries KES 5 of duty.

Under the stake wording every new stake was a fresh taxable amount. The 2025 deposit wording attaches to money transferred into the wallet and says nothing about stakes placed from a balance already there. Sending money in is covered step by step in how an M-Pesa deposit to a betting account works.

How can you see the duty on your own deposits?

Two records show it. The M-Pesa or Airtel Money confirmation message gives the amount you sent, and the operator's transaction history gives the amount credited to your betting account. A gap of exactly 5% of the amount sent points to the duty being recovered from the deposit.

Illustrative example: a confirmation for KES 2,000 next to a credit of KES 1,900 shows KES 100 recovered, which is 5% of KES 2,000. A credit of the full KES 2,000 means the operator carried the duty itself. Any mobile money charge on the transfer is a fee set by the payment provider, not a tax.

How has the betting excise rate changed since 2019?

Each step below comes from a KRA public notice or from the High Court's account of the history in Okwama v Milestone Gaming Limited [2025] KEHC 11932 (KLR), paragraphs 16 to 18. Effective dates appear only where the source states them.

KRA's 2019 notice described the duty as chargeable on all stakes placed by punters with bookmakers. The 2025 step did two things at once: it cut the rate from 15% to 5% and moved the charge from each bet to each deposit.

What this guide does not cover

Excise is one of several taxes around a bet. Withholding tax on money paid out to players and the operator's own betting tax are separate charges under other laws. A separate 15% excise under paragraph 8 applies to fees for advertising betting, gaming, lotteries and prize competitions, and it falls on advertising fees, not on your deposit.

If you want to cap the money you put in, the guide to deposit limits and time limits explains the tools a licensee must offer. The glossary entry on what a stake is in betting covers the word itself.