In June 2024, the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) collected Sh24.3 billion from gambling and betting companies — a significant increase from Sh19.2 billion in 2023.
“The integration of betting and gaming companies into the tax system has given KRA real-time access to companies in the sector.
During FY2023/24, KRA collected Sh24.269 billion in excise duty and withholding tax from 111 on-boarded companies,” reads a section of KRA’s report titled Revenue Performance FY 2023/24.
Additional reports show that Kenyans bet Sh24,000 per second, amounting to Sh2.1 billion daily. In 2024 alone, at least Sh766 billion was spent on gambling.
According to a GeoPoll report titled Betting in Africa 2024, Kenya led in betting participation, with at least 82.81 per cent of adults engaged. South Africa followed at 73.94 per cent, Ghana at 73.03 per cent, Uganda at 71.43 per cent, Tanzania at 71.13 per cent, and Nigeria at 65.32 per cent.
With these increasing numbers, the sports betting market is projected to reach US$166.46 million in 2025. Revenue is expected to grow at an annual rate of 4.02 per cent, resulting in a projected market volume of US$194.91 million by 2029.
Additionally, the number of users in the sports betting market is expected to rise to 1.3 million by 2029.
A report showed that in May 2019, Kenyans placed bets worth Sh30 billion. This indicates that if people continued betting at the same rate each month, annual spending would exceed Sh360 billion. It is against this backdrop of high gambling expenditure that Parliament introduced the Gambling Control Bill, 2023.
The 2021 Kenya FinAccess Household Survey revealed that 13.9 per cent of adults engaged in gambling — a notable rise from 1.9 per cent in 2019. The majority were males in urban areas aged between 18 and 36 years.
The survey also found that at least one in every 10 Kenyans engaged in betting as an income-generating activity.
By Mercy Kahenda
