Gov’t Revokes Licenses of 19 Betting Companies Including SportPesa

The government has revoked licenses of several betting companies operating in Kenya.

This comes after a task force constituted to review their licenses failed to clear their operations in the country
  
The team failed to green-light the operations of 19 betting companies, 13 casinos, and six lotteries. The companies also risk having their senior foreign managers deported in the crackdown.

The multi-agency task force was formed a month ago to probe the licenses of all betting and gaming companies in the country.

Some of the affected companies include SportPesa, Betin, Betway, Betpawa, PremierBet, Lucky2u, 1xBet, MozzartBet, Dafabet, World Sports Betting, Atari Gaming, Palms Bet and Betboss among others.

The companies allegedly failed to prove that they were tax compliant as required by the Betting Control and Licensing Board (BCLB).

It was established that the companies earned a cumulative amount of Sh204 billion in 2018 but paid only Sh4 billion in taxes.

One of the companies, Betin has since moved to court seeking to have its license reinstated.