Is online betting legal in Kenya? What the Gambling Control Act, 2025 says

Online betting is legal in Kenya on one condition: the operator must hold a licence issued under the Gambling Control Act, 2025. Section 28(1) of the Act says that a person shall not offer any gambling activity or service unless the activity or service is licensed under the Act. Section 28(2)(i) names online gambling as one of the activities that need that licence.

The rest follows from that one rule: a licensed site owes you the duties the Act sets out, and a site without a licence owes you nothing the Authority can enforce. This guide walks through sections 28, 67, 79 and 98, the hand-over from the old Board, and the regulator's list of licensed companies. For the whole statute in one place, read the Gambling Control Act, 2025 explained for bettors.

What section 28 requires before a bet is legal

Section 2 of the Act defines online gambling as any form of gambling in which persons participate by the use of remote communication and on the internet. A bet placed in an app, on a website or through a phone menu falls inside that definition. Section 28(2) then lists the licensable activities, and the list includes bookmaking in paragraph (c), online gambling in paragraph (i) and the provision of any gambling software or platform in paragraph (m).

Two more sections tie the licence to what you see on screen. Section 36(3) requires the holder of an online gambling licence to display the licence on its online platform. Section 72(1) stops a licensee from letting anyone play unless that person is registered and holds an account with it, which is why every legal site asks you to register before the first bet.

Section 68(8) adds a duty that matters when something goes wrong: an online operator must keep a customer care centre within Kenya. None of these duties bind a site that is not licensed, because the Act only speaks to licensees. That is the practical meaning of legal only with a licensed operator.

The three online licences in section 67

Section 67(1) of the Act creates three online licences: an online bookmakers licence, an online lottery licence and an online casino licence. A sports betting site needs the first; a site offering slots or table games online needs the third. The Act's section 2 definitions set the edges: an online bookmaker carries on betting by remote communications, including virtual games and virtual sports, and a casino includes an approved virtual or online platform where a person may play a game approved by the Authority.

Section 31(3) gives a gambling licence a default life of thirty-six months unless regulations prescribe another period. The 2026 Licensing Regulations did exactly that: the Fourth Schedule to Legal Notice No. 111 sets one year for an online gambling licence, for new licences and renewals alike. The fees, the capital rules and the way each licence shows on the regulator's list are covered in the three online gambling licences in Kenya.

Offences for unlicensed and foreign operators

Section 98 of the Act makes it an offence to operate or conduct any form of gambling without a valid licence. A first offence carries a fine of up to three million shillings, imprisonment of up to three years, or both. A second or later offence carries up to five million shillings, up to five years, or both.

Foreign operators have their own section. Under section 79(1), a gambling operator based in a foreign country may only be issued with an online gambling licence if it is registered in Kenya, has a physical address registered in Kenya and meets the requirements the Authority prescribes in regulations; section 79(2) adds audited accounts for the preceding year. Section 79(3) then makes it an offence for a foreign-based operator to provide online gambling services in Kenya without a licence: a natural person faces up to two million shillings, up to two years, or both, and a corporate body faces a fine of up to fifty million shillings.

The 2026 Regulations reach the people around an unlicensed site as well. Regulation 102 of Legal Notice No. 112 makes it an offence to provide internet hosting, server infrastructure, domain registration, payment processing or technical support that enables an unlawful gambling platform; an individual faces up to one million shillings, up to six months, or both. Regulation 102(2) defines an illegal gambling platform as any website, application, digital device or electronic system that offers gambling services without the authorisation, licence or approval the law requires.

One group of foreign operators is treated differently. Section 79(4) allows a licence for a foreign operator that does not target Kenya, and regulation 7(1) of Legal Notice No. 113 of 2026 obliges such an operator to use geo-blocking and identity verification so that persons resident in Kenya cannot access its platforms. A foreign site that lets you in from Kenya is therefore either licensed here in the ordinary way or outside the law.

The offences above fall on the operator and on those who host it or move its money. What they mean for you is narrower but real: the two-day credit of winnings in section 70(1), the player-fund cover in section 76(2) and the appeal to the Gambling Appeals Tribunal in section 80 are rights against a licensee. There is no licensee to hold to them when the site is unlicensed.

What changed from the BCLB era

Section 120 of the Act repeals the Betting, Lotteries and Gaming Act, Cap. 131, the law under which the Betting Control and Licensing Board worked. Section 6(1) establishes the Gambling Regulatory Authority of Kenya, and section 6(3) makes the Authority the successor of the Board. Under section 121(1), all rights, duties, obligations, assets and liabilities of the former Board transferred to the Authority on commencement.

The Act was assented to on 7 August 2025, published in Kenya Gazette Supplement No. 141 on 12 August 2025, and commenced on 26 August 2025. Old licences did not fall away on that day. Section 122(1) keeps licences issued under the repealed Act, including online gambling licences, valid for the period of the licence, and section 122(2) tells the holder to apply to the Authority for a new licence when it expires.

The Licensing Regulations shortened that runway. Regulation 30(1) of Legal Notice No. 111 says a licence issued under the repealed Act and subsisting when the Regulations commenced continued in force for sixty days from the date of publication of the Regulations, which was 30 June 2026, and holders had to apply afresh in that window. Section 121(6)(a) separately keeps the betting, gaming, lottery and prize competition tax sections of the old Act in force until new provisions are enacted.

How to check an operator on the regulator's list

Section 39(1) of the Act requires the Authority to keep a register of licences that records each licensee's name, identity and registration number, the gambling activity, the counties covered and the expiry date. Section 39(2) opens that register to the public at reasonable times on payment of a prescribed fee. The regulator's website also publishes a free list at https://gra.go.ke/licensed-operators/, headed Licensed Gaming Companies for the Trading Period 2025/26.

The list is a single table with eight columns: No., Operators Name, Trading Name, BK, PG, PL, STATUS and DOMAINS. At the access date it held 187 rows, 170 marked Renewal and 17 marked New, and the site's own content record showed the page last modified on 19 March 2026. The page does not explain the abbreviations BK, PG and PL; the Act's licence categories are bookmaker, public gaming and public lottery, and the column headed BK carries bookmaker licence numbers.

To check a site, open the list and search for the trading name you see on the site. Compare the DOMAINS cell with the address in your browser letter by letter, because the list gives the domain the regulator recorded and nothing else. Then look at the site itself for the licence display that section 36(3) requires.

Three limits of the list are worth knowing. It covers the 2025/26 trading period, it was last modified before the sixty-day window in regulation 30 closed, so a licence issued under the 2026 Regulations may not show, and it publishes no expiry dates. If a trading name is missing or a domain does not match, the Authority receives and determines complaints from the public under section 10(m), and its website shows a toll-free line, 0800-723-770.

Once you have a licensed operator, registration is the next step, and the Act sets rules for that too; see what you need to open a betting account in Kenya.

What this guide does not cover

It does not cover betting shops, SMS or USSD betting, or the taxes on stakes and winnings, which other guides on this site explain. It describes the 2026 Regulations as gazetted on 30 June 2026. It names no operator and ranks none; the regulator's list is the only list that counts.

For the full picture from account to payout, start with the complete legal guide to online betting in Kenya or browse all guides on this site.