Sports betting operators SportPesa and Betin both say they will cease operations in Kenya after the government announced a change to a legal bill which saw a 20 percent tax increase on game, betting, and lottery winnings.
SportPesa released a statement saying, “This will have severe consequences for licensed betting companies, which dutifully pay their taxes and ultimately will lead to a decline in government tax revenue to near zero and will halt all investments in sports in Kenya.”
Despite its exit, the sports betting operator indicated it may return to Kenya’s gaming market if the government implements “adequate taxation and a non-hostile regulatory environment.”
Betin joined SportPesa in leaving the Kenyan market and has terminated all of its employees, reported SBC News. It cites “redundancy, frustration, heavy taxation as well as the government’s failure to renew its operating license as the reasons behind the decision.”
Betin released a memo that said, “As a result of the deterioration of the profitability, the management has had to rethink its operating model and to proceed with the exercise of termination on account of redundancy.”
Kenya has been one of the fastest-growing markets for gaming in recent years and currently generates up to $2 billion per year in wagers.
According to the BBC, the gambling boom is “being fed by faster internet, cheaper phones and a love of the English Premier League. But there is a fear that adults and children are being sucked into a cycle of betting, debt and poverty.” One government minister has called it “a curse on youth” and in May the country introduced a ban on advertising outdoors and on social media.
