Reports
AFRICA - KENYA Meanwhile Casino Malindi operates the
kenyasportsbet.com site which was set up in 2001 and offers bets on European and worldwide sporting events on various sports. Betin Kenya is operated by Gamcode Ltd
under licence by the Logispin Group and offers sports betting, live betting, casino games, racing and virtual sports. It offers online and offline betting. Betin has been operating since 2013. Betway Kenya is a leading betting and gaming
company in Africa offering sportsbooks online or via SMS on most sports. Finally Mcheza is one of the newest sports
betting sites launched in 2015 and enables players to bet via SMS or online. It is a brand under the ownership of Acumen Communications Ltd and offers bets on football matches across 277 leagues worldwide. Tey are partnered with Intralot. Meanwhile horse racing in Kenya dates back
over 100 years and is run by the Jockey Club of Kenya which governs the thoroughbred racing sector. It is run at the Ngong Race Course which is the only race track in East Africa and owned by the Jockey Club. It hosts many derbies throughout the year and races are held 11 months of the year with racing on alternate Sundays. Racing was established during the British
Colonial era and is run on European lines with a right handed turf track modelled loosely on Ascot. Te first races in the area were held in Machakos with Somali ponies. Tey race thoroughbreds which are mainly
bred in Kenya or imported from South Africa. Bets can be placed at the tote stations at the racecourse and there are three grandstands to watch the racing from. Tere is a nine hole golf park attached. Off course betting began in 2011.
ONLINE Kenya began the process of internet gaming
legislation in 2011 when it entered into an agreement with Amaya Gaming Group to run a pilot for online gaming.
BetKenya.com was launched and this became the first legal gaming site in Kenya. Amaya Gaming Group (owner of PokerSTars)
had first launched a SMS lottery service which then followed with the
Betkenya.com site offering gaming. Te SMS lottery service is run via
kwachumamilli.com and the company received 100,000 SMS per day within the first month of its launch. Te Kwachu 6/49 lottery offered people the
chance to win a weekly jackpot of approximately €75,000. In 2012 detectives investigated allegations of
embezzlement of KES93m which was meant for a Nyanza based charity. Meanwhile there were lots of problems with
the BetKenya site and Amaya closed down the site and concentrated on other “more profitable markets” in North American, Europe and the
P56 NEWSWIRE / INTERACTIVE /
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Caribbean. Te site when it operated offered slots, table
games, instant games, poker and other card games. Content was provided by Chartwell, a company acquired by Amaya whilst Omega Gaming was selected for the Centralised Gaming System Management it had in place. Today Kenyans can access online and mobile
sports betting via mobile and online platforms although technically it is illegal outside of state owned sites but unclear on what happens if players are caught on offshore sites. Te government does not however ban foreign online casinos at the moment. However legislation needs updating as it does
not take into regard the use of SMS and mobile money platforms in gaming operations and as such does not provide for regulation for online gaming. Tere is one company, Betws, which has the
licence for online operations but everything waits upon the gaming amendments to come into place.
CASINOS Tere are approximately 38 casinos in Kenya
and most are associated with hotels. Tere are around 22 in Nairobi, six in Mombasa and one casino each mostly in other towns such as Malindi, Tika, Nakuru and Eldoret. Tere is no list of casinos available mainly
because they open and close frequently and each have their own specific operational choices. Table and slot figures are also hard to find
although an estimation from inside sources is around 264 table games and 1,798 slots. Tey vary as to what is on the floor and in storage depending on consumer demand and the season. Apparently a casino must have table games to
operate slots and some casinos therefore just have one or two tables to enable them to introduce a multitude of slots which they see as more lucrative. Most slots are locally supplied via South Africa as costs for shipping plus duty costs are huge into Kenya. Most are slots from UK and Eastern European
markets by those companies with branches in South Africa. Most casinos have craps, Shemy tables,
Rummy and Baccarat and some offer bingo too which boosts the casino games. Some also offer electronic roulette tables. Gross gambling revenue in 2013 for casinos
was KES1.8bn. (US$18m) rising to around KES2bn at present. According to PricewaterhouseCoopers reports casino gambling revenues rose in Kenya in 2014 by 6.9 percent which was a drop from the 11.2 percent increase in 2013 and 24.2 percent compound increase annually between 2009 and 2011. Tis
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