Kenya’s Online Betting Licence Now Costs KES 55 Million After High Court Clears New Fees

Kenya’s gambling industry is facing a dramatic increase in the cost of operating online after the High Court cleared the Gambling Regulatory Authority of Kenya to begin collecting licence fees under the Gambling Control (Licensing) Regulations, 2026, even as a legal challenge to the same regulations remains pending.

On Monday, 24 August 2026, the court confirmed earlier orders and granted additional relief sought by the regulator, effectively allowing the new licensing fees to be charged. According to Business Daily, the Authority told the court that 246 licence applications had been left in limbo because it could not legally accept payments while the disputed fees were suspended.

The decision arrived just four days before a critical deadline for gambling operators.

Regulation 30(1) provides that licences issued under the former Betting, Lotteries and Gaming Act remain valid for only sixty days from the publication of the new regulations in the Kenya Gazette on 29 June 2026. Operators seeking to continue under the new legal framework must submit applications within that period—and, following Monday's ruling, must now pay the substantially higher fees.

Three orders, not one

The court's intervention has unfolded through a series of separate decisions rather than a single ruling.

Justice William Musyoka initially granted leave on 20 July 2026 and ordered that the leave operate as a stay on the entire licensing regulations. The Gambling Regulatory Authority subsequently applied on 29 July to have that stay lifted.

In a ruling delivered on 7 August, Justice Musyoka declined to discharge the stay altogether. Instead, he restricted it to the increased fees contained in the Second Schedule and the capital requirements set out in the Third Schedule.

Everything else returned to force that day.

The suspension of the fees had therefore been in effect since 20 July, and Monday's ruling effectively brings that suspension to an end.

The dispute is before the High Court as Judicial Review E251 of 2026. It was filed by Thomas Buckley Opar Owuor and Ken Brance against the Prime Cabinet Secretary, the Gambling Regulatory Authority of Kenya and the Attorney General. The parties are expected to file submissions by 21 September, with judgment scheduled for 2 October 2026. Until then, the regulator will collect money under a fee structure whose legality has not yet been finally determined.

Owuor told the court that he works as a gambling consultant and is an Advocate of the High Court. Justice Musyoka observed, however, that neither of the applicants holds a gambling licence, raising questions about whether they have the necessary standing to challenge the regulations. The judge did not determine the issue because the Authority had not actively pursued it.

As a result, the industry's temporary relief on licensing fees has emerged from litigation whose underlying competence the judge has already identified as a potential concern.

The fees the public saw, and the fees that became law

The Gambling Regulatory Authority published draft regulations on 18 March 2026 and invited public comments until 13 April. Those draft regulations remain available on the regulator's website. A comparison between the draft and Legal Notice 111, which was signed on 29 June, shows that some of the figures changed after the public consultation period had ended.

One of the most significant changes concerns the duration of an online gambling licence.

Under the draft regulations, such a licence would have lasted for three years. The gazetted Fourth Schedule instead makes it valid for only one year, meaning the much larger licensing fees will be payable annually.

The hybrid licence proposed in the draft—which would have allowed a single permit to cover online casino operations, bookmaking, lotteries and bingo—was also removed before the regulations were formally gazetted.

Under the new schedule, an online bookmaker must pay KES 5 million to submit an application and KES 50 million for the licence itself, equivalent to approximately $425,000 at an exchange rate of KES 130 to the dollar. The operator must also pay KES 5 million annually to conduct operations, while renewal costs KES 12.5 million.

The Association of Gaming Operators Kenya had objected to a proposed 10% levy on advertising expenditure. The final gazetted regulations set the charge at 6%.

In its affidavit, the Authority maintained that it had conducted public participation forums and that parliamentary committees had been involved in the regulatory process.

The applicants have also challenged the authority of the government official who gazetted the regulations. The draft regulations identify Geoffrey Ruku, Cabinet Secretary for Public Service, Human Capital Development and Special Programmes. Legal Notice 111, however, carries the signature of Musalia Mudavadi, the Prime Cabinet Secretary and Cabinet Secretary for Foreign and Diaspora Affairs, who is named as the first respondent in the case.

Justice Musyoka is expected to determine that issue when he delivers judgment on 2 October.

Why Safaricom is in the courtroom

The 7 August ruling identifies two interested parties in the case: the Association of Gaming Operators Kenya and Safaricom PLC.

Safaricom's involvement reflects the central role of M-Pesa in gambling enforcement in Kenya. The Authority's affidavits raised the possibility that payment channels could be shut down, while the regulator gave assurances that the paybill numbers of licensed operators would remain active.

In April 2025, the previous gambling regulator ordered Safaricom to disconnect paybill numbers belonging to 58 betting platforms. The ability to enforce gambling restrictions through payment infrastructure therefore rests with a listed telecommunications company rather than directly with the courts.

That mechanism is now expressly incorporated into the law. The Gambling Control (Conduct of Gambling Operations) Regulations, 2026, issued as Legal Notice 112, prohibit payment service providers from processing or settling gambling transactions without the Authority's approval. The Authority also has the power to withdraw that approval.

An operator that loses payment approval can no longer accept money.

The rules already in force are the technical ones

The licensing regulations were published alongside separate legal notices dealing with advertising, gambling operations, foreign-based operators and an appeals tribunal. None of those other regulations is being challenged, and all have been legally effective since June.

Legal Notice 112 requires licensees to confirm, before beginning operations, that they are integrated with the Kenya Revenue Authority's tax system and the Authority's central monitoring platform. Operators must also declare every paybill number they intend to use.

In June, Director-General Peter Karimi described the central monitoring platform at the Gaming Tech Summit Africa as a planned initiative. Under the new regulations, connection to that system has become a formal condition for conducting gambling business.

The regulations also impose significant data-handling requirements. Player information must be encrypted both while being transmitted and while stored, and gambling data must generally be stored and processed on servers located in Kenya unless the Authority grants a written exemption.

Kenya has therefore introduced data localisation requirements for gambling operators—without those provisions attracting the same legal controversy that has surrounded the new licensing fees.

What happens on Friday

The sixty-day transition period is calculated from the publication of the regulations. Because the Gazette supplement is dated 29 June, the deadline appears to fall on Friday, 28 August. The Authority has described the period as beginning on 30 June, which would produce a deadline one day later.

Under either interpretation, the deadline falls this week.

An operator that has not submitted an application by then risks operating without a valid licence, while approval to continue using its paybill may become subject to the Authority's discretion.

The regulator has undertaken to refund fees if the court ultimately invalidates the regulations. Regulation 27 states that fees are not refundable when a licence is cancelled or revoked or when an operator ceases trading. It does not address the situation in which a court quashes the regulations or their fee schedules.

The Authority's commitment to make refunds therefore exists outside the express wording of the regulations rather than in conflict with it.

For Kenya's online gambling industry, the immediate consequence is clear: applications that had been stalled can now proceed, but at a sharply increased cost. The legal dispute itself, however, is far from over.

The next decisive date is 2 October 2026, when Justice William Musyoka is scheduled to deliver judgment on the challenge to the regulations themselves. 

By fLEXI tEAM