Sports betting has been allowed in
Kenya since 1966 when Parliament passed the Betting Lotteries and Gaming Act. Legally sanctioned online sports betting was
first offered in Kenya in 2013. Today, almost every type of gambling is
regulated and is overseen by the
Betting Control and Licensing Board (BCLB).
2007, Ghana’s MTN MoMo followed in 2009. According to the Bank of Ghana, mobile money transactions topped GH¢87.7bn in April 2022, making them the dominant payment method in the economy. However, Internet access could become more expensive with millions of Ghanaians facing the threat of being deprived of access to the Internet altogether. Data prices have seen increases amid the current challenging economic circumstances.
Te government has reaped the benefits of the sports betting boom. Between 2019 and 2022 the government collected GH450m in taxes from the gaming industry. Ghana’s sports gambling rules are being updated with most of the focus on the online sector. Te Ministry of Finance and the Ministry for the Interior has been ordered to co-supervise the gaming industry and consult with stakeholders to formulate a comprehensive policy to improve tax revenue from the online sector.
An IMF programme in Ghana intends to bring down the debt-to- GDP ratio from over 100 per cent to 55 per cent by 2028 and lists boosting tax revenue as one of the essential measures to achieve the target. In 2023, taxes on gambling were raised via Te Income Tax (Amendment) law.
Te new income tax law re- introduced a 10 per cent tax on
lottery winnings (after it had been removed in 2017), and a 20 per cent tax on GGR on most operators, including sportsbetting operators, casino operators, slot operators and online operators.
Tere was a massive player revolt when the government implemented the 10 per cent withholding tax on winnings. Te Ghana Revenue Authority has already projected a revenue of GH¢1.2bn from betting by the end of 2023. However, the tax on winnings could well push players to offshore betting sites.
Kenya
Sports betting has been allowed in Kenya since 1966 when Parliament passed the Betting Lotteries and Gaming Act. Legally sanctioned online sports betting was first offered in Kenya in 2013. Today, almost every type of gambling is regulated and is overseen by the
Betting Control and Licensing Board (BCLB). For the time being, online casino gaming may only be operated by the government. Te government is yet to develop an online casino platform. Land- based casinos are legal and there are around 30 casinos nationwide, which are usually part of hotels.
Te sports betting market dominates the gambling landscape especially online sports betting, which is booming thanks to the success of mobile money banking applications such as M-Pesa, which is owned by Kenya’s largest telecommunications company, Safaricom.
Kenyans spent Sh169.1bn to place bets through Safaricom’s M-Pesa in the year to March increasing 23.8 per cent from Sh136bn a year earlier despite higher taxes on both companies and players. Meanwhile, Safaricom revenue from betting rose 40 per cent to
Sh5.98bn last year. Overall, Kenyans staked a record Sh88.5bn through online bets in the full year to June 2023.
While the online sports betting sector has boomed, the Kenyan government has been embroiled in a number of disputes with online sports betting operators over the years, most notably with leading Kenyan sports betting firm SportPesa. Betting and gaming companies have been targeted over failure to remit their fair share of taxes, despite the industry witnessing a boom. In September 2019, SportPesa said it would halt all operations in Kenya after the country’s parliament agreed to a 20 per cent tax on betting stakes for the 2019-20 fiscal year. However, the company has returned to the market under a licence held by a new operator, Milestone Games.
Te government is also continuing its crackdown on unlicenced
WIRE / PULSE / INSIGHT / REPORTS P157
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