Kenya Online Gambling Licence 2026: KES 60m in Year One, a One-Year Term and a Fee Schedule Still in Court

What an online licence costs under the 2026 Regulations

Kenya’s Gambling Control Act 2025 (No. 14 of 2025) came into force on 26 August 2025 and repealed the Betting, Lotteries and Gaming Act, Cap. 131 (s. 120). The Act moved licensing from the Betting Control and Licensing Board to the Gambling Regulatory Authority of Kenya (GRAK), but it set no fees: section 30(1)(a) leaves the application fee to regulations made by the Cabinet Secretary. Those arrived 307 days later as the Gambling Control (Licensing) Regulations 2026, Legal Notice No. 111 of 2026, made on 29 June 2026.

Item 4 of the Second Schedule prices the three online licences that section 67(1) of the Act creates. We read it on Kenya Law on 25 October 2026.

KES	Online bookmaker	Online casino	Online lottery
Application fee	5,000,000	5,000,000	5,000,000
Licence fee, paid on approval (reg. 21(1)(a))	50,000,000	50,000,000	20,000,000
Annual operating licence fee (reg. 11(3))	5,000,000	5,000,000	2,500,000
Year one	60,000,000	60,000,000	27,500,000
Application for renewal	2,500,000	2,500,000	2,500,000
Licence renewal fee	10,000,000	10,000,000	5,000,000

The same table prices online pool betting (KES 2m to apply, 5m on grant, 1.5m a year), online bingo (0.5m and 2m) and online totalisator (0.5m, 2m and 0.5m a year). Bookmaker, casino and lottery are separate licences in regulation 11(1), each with its own column, so an operator offering sports betting and casino games online pays both: KES 120m in year one.

Suppliers are licensed separately. A gambling software or platform provider pays KES 200,000 to apply and KES 1,000,000 a year (Second Schedule item 9), and the online operator’s application has to name a platform and games provider that GRAK has licensed (reg. 11(2)(g)). Foreign key employees, directors and shareholders each pay KES 50,000 to apply and KES 200,000 for the licence (item 10). Advertising needs GRAK approval under section 87(1) of the Act, at KES 50,000 to apply plus 6% of the advertising budget (item 11).

Regulation 27 makes every fee non-refundable if the licence is cancelled or revoked or the business stops, and none of them is charged pro rata.

The online licence lasts one year

The Act’s default term is 36 months “or such other period as may be prescribed in regulations” (s. 31(3)). The Fourth Schedule to LN 111/2026 prescribes a different period for online gambling: one year for a new licence and one year for a renewal. Land-based casino and bookmaker licences keep three years. iGaming Business reported on 11 August 2026 that “licences now cover a three-year period”; for online licences the Fourth Schedule says otherwise.

The short term changes the arithmetic. A renewal application must be lodged at least 90 days before expiry (reg. 24(2); the Act’s s. 31(2)(b) says three months), so on a 365-day licence the file is due by day 275, three quarters of the way through the first term. GRAK then has 30 days to issue the renewed licence (reg. 24(3)).

Over three years, with the annual operating fee paid in each licence year:

KES, three years	Online bookmaker or casino	Online lottery	Land-based bookmaker
Year one	60,000,000	27,500,000	9,000,000
Year two (renewal + operating fee)	17,500,000	10,000,000	1,500,000
Year three (renewal + operating fee)	17,500,000	10,000,000	1,500,000
Total	95,000,000	47,500,000	12,000,000

The land-based column is one three-year licence: KES 2.5m to apply, 5m on grant and the 1.5m annual operating fee three times (Second Schedule item 2). Online costs 7.9 times as much over the same period. The licence fee alone is ten times the land-based KES 5m. The Regulations do not say in terms whether the annual operating fee is due again in a renewal year; if it is not, the online three-year total is KES 85m.

Money to lock up before the first bet

Two further requirements are not fees, and the vendor pages that rank for this query mix them up or understate them.

• Security. Section 40(1) of the Act requires an insurance security bond or bank guarantee for the amounts in its Third Schedule: KES 100,000,000 for online gambling, against KES 20,000,000 for non-online bookmakers, casinos and lotteries. Each shop operating under an online licence needs KES 500,000. GRAK can draw on it to meet the licensee’s liabilities (s. 40(2)).
• Gambling capital. Section 41 requires proof of adequate capital; the Regulations’ Third Schedule sets it at KES 100,000,000 for an online bookmaker or online casino, KES 150,000,000 for a long-term public lottery, against KES 50,000,000 for a land-based bookmaker. The application has to include that proof (reg. 11(2)(e)).

An online bookmaker therefore commits KES 60m in fees, a KES 100m guarantee and KES 100m of demonstrated capital in its first year. Google’s AI Overview for “betting license in kenya”, fetched on 25 October 2026, gave the online capital base as “around KES 50,000,000”, which is the land-based bookmaker figure. One vendor page in the Kenyan top five quoted “USD 100,000+”.

What the High Court has and has not decided

The fee schedule has been in litigation since July. These are the steps on the public record, read in the rulings themselves on Kenya Law.

Date	Case	What happened
20 Jul 2026	JR E251 of 2026 (Musyoka J)	Ex parte stay of the Regulations
7 Aug 2026	JR E251	Stay narrowed to the increase in fees (Second Schedule) and the gambling capital (Third Schedule); judgment set for 2 October
9 Aug 2026	Petition E533 of 2026 (Mutai J)	Interim conservatory order suspending sections of the Act and “the commencement of the Gambling Control (Licensing Regulations, 2026)“
21 Aug 2026	JR E251, [2026] KEHC 13039	Court confirms its 13 August variation and grants prayers 4, 5 and 7 of GRAK’s application
2 Oct 2026	JR E251	Judgment not delivered
21 Oct 2026	Petition E533, [2026] KEHC 16214 (Aburili J)	E533, E611 and E612 sent to the Principal Judge to decide which court hears the challenges to the Act and the Regulations; those petitions stayed meanwhile

The 21 August ruling explains why the fees are being collected. GRAK said some 246 licence applications were pending and could not be completed without the fee component, and that the Act has no transitional provision carrying over the old charges. The judge agreed that the fees “cannot be separated from the processing of the licensing applications” and that leaving the sector unregulated while the case ran would be against the public interest (para. 14). He recorded GRAK’s undertaking to refund any amount the court later finds “unlawful, excessive or improperly collected” (para. 15). The ruling does not quote prayers 4, 5 and 7, so it does not tell us whether the stay on gambling capital still stands.

The 21 October ruling explains why the judgment slipped: an application to join further parties was filed in JR E251 by the Nairobi City County Government, the petitioner in E611 (para. 11). It also records a similar petition in the Kiambu High Court and another judicial review before Ouya J. Petitions E533, E611 and E612 attack sections of the Act itself, including sections 28 to 49 and 67 to 80, which cover licensing and online gambling.

As of 25 October 2026 the position is: the fees are being charged, a refund undertaking is on the record, the conservatory order of 9 August has not been reported as discharged, and no court has decided whether the fees or the Act are lawful.

Excise duty: 5%, on a wider base since 1 July 2026

Excise on betting was already charged on deposits rather than stakes before this year: in the Excise Duty Act as consolidated to 1 July 2025, paragraph 4A of Part II of the First Schedule set it at five per cent “on the amount deposited into a customer’s betting wallet”, with horse racing excluded, and paragraph 4B did the same for gaming. Section 36 of the Finance Act 2026 (No. 19 of 2026), in force from 1 July 2026 (s. 1(c)), made three changes:

• “into a customer’s betting wallet” became “for betting purposes” (para. 4A) and “for gambling purposes” (para. 4B);
• the horse-racing proviso to paragraph 4A was deleted;
• “amount deposited” now means money or money’s worth “paid, transferred, credited, or otherwise made available for betting or gambling purposes” to a licensee, “whether provided by a player or the operator”, in or out of a player account, including chips, tokens and credits.

A player who deposits KES 1,000 and receives KES 200 of operator-credited bonus used to generate KES 50 of excise. On the new wording it is KES 60, because the bonus is in the base. A bookmaker remits the duty within 24 hours of midnight on the day of the transactions (Excise Duty Act s. 36A).

The same Finance Act defined “winnings” in the Income Tax Act as a pay-out “from a lottery or prize competition” by a licensee, taxed by withholding at 20%, and replaced the definition of “withdrawals” paid to a player’s account. We did not trace the withholding rate on withdrawals; check it with a Kenyan tax adviser before modelling player pay-outs. Corporate tax is outside this article.

For how a deposit base compares with a GGR base, Argentina’s federal tax is the closest parallel we have costed: see the Argentina deposit-tax article.

Who can hold the licence, and what it obliges

The conditions in the Act shape the corporate structure before any fee is paid.

• Kenyan ownership. No one may be licensed unless at least 30% of its shares are held by Kenyan citizens and it pays all money from the licensed activity through an account with a Kenyan financial institution (s. 29).
• Approved control system. The online application must include a gambling control system that GRAK approves, covering security, payments, under-age and vulnerability protection, advertising and data protection under the Data Protection Act (s. 68(1)-(2)); the regulations add that it must be compatible with GRAK’s central management system (reg. 11(2)(c)).
• Real-time monitoring. Operators give GRAK the location of their servers, a valid telecommunications licence and, for mobile products, network connectivity with two links to mobile operators (s. 68(6)-(7)). Monitoring is open to the Communications Authority of Kenya (s. 68(5)).
• Local customer care. A customer care centre within Kenya is mandatory (s. 68(8)).
• Player rules. Online winnings are credited within two days (s. 70(1)). The minimum online bet is KES 20, and accepting less is an offence carrying a fine of at least KES 3,000,000 (s. 71).
• Advertising. Gambling advertising needs GRAK approval, may not run on television or radio between 6 a.m. and 10 p.m. except during a live sporting event, and must give 20% of aired advertising to responsible gambling (s. 87).
• Use it or lose it. GRAK may suspend or revoke a licence if the holder does not start business within six months of grant (reg. 26(1)(a)).
• Old licences. Online and other licences issued under the repealed Act stay valid for their term; the holder applies for a new licence under the 2025 Act when it expires (s. 122).

The application also needs a KRA tax compliance certificate and PIN, AML and counter-terrorist-financing policies with training records, and the platform, domain and games-provider agreements (reg. 11(2)). Our AML guide for online operators covers the programme side.

What we could not verify

• GRAK’s own site. gra.go.ke did not respond when we tried in October 2026, so we have no GRAK circular, fee page or licence register. The figures above come from the gazetted Regulations on Kenya Law.
• The gambling-capital stay. Whether the 7 August stay on the Third Schedule capital still applies after the 21 August ruling depends on prayers the ruling does not quote.
• The 9 August conservatory order in E533. The 21 October ruling records it but does not say whether it was later varied or discharged.
• Processing time. The Regulations fix a 30-day decision period for renewals and 14 days to give reasons for a refusal (reg. 21(3)), but no period for deciding a new application.
• Exchange rate. We give all figures in Kenyan shillings as gazetted and do not convert them.

For the rest of the regime, including land-based licences, see the Kenya gambling licence profile. The all-jurisdiction cost comparison puts licence fees elsewhere side by side, and South Africa is the other African market we profile.