Lead image for Betting firms fight new gambling rules as court weighs massive fee hikes.
The decision on whether Gambling companies will pay a Sh50 million licensing fee for online bookmakers and Sh120 million for casinos, or stick to the old requirement of Sh200,000 and Sh7 million respectively, now lies with High Court Judge William Musyoka.
This is after a court case was filed challenging new gambling control regulations.
Two lawyers, Thomas Buckley Opal and Ken Brance, sued the Gambling Regulatory Authority of Kenya (GRA), the Attorney General and Prime Cabinet Secretary, arguing that the new regulations will cripple the industry and were allegedly passed without public participation.
Opal and Brance explained that the 2026 regulations were passed amidst confusion on who among the Cabinet Secretaries is responsible for gambling.
They accused Kenya Kwanza of deliberately leaving out the crucial role of managing the industry from the organogram. They stated that this left gambling firms without anyone to ask questions from. According to them, this role initially was assigned to the Public Service, Human Capital Development and Special Programs, Geoffrey Ruku.
Nevertheless, they complained that the fees introduced in the new law range from 200 percent increase to 49,900 percent increase.
According to the two, an online bookmaker application fee was initially Sh10,000. However, the new fee applied is Sh5 million. For pool and betting license renewal, the players were paying Sh5,000 but are now required to pay Sh2.5 million, the same as the bookmaker application fee, which was previously Sh10,000.