Kenya Betting Payment Methods

Is online betting legal in Kenya?

Yes, with a licence. The Gambling Control Act, 2025 was assented to on 7 August 2025 and came into force on 20 August 2025. It repeals the Betting, Lotteries and Gaming Act of 1966 and creates the Gambling Regulatory Authority of Kenya, which takes over the rights, staff and assets of the Betting Control and Licensing Board (BCLB). Section 67 requires anyone who operates, sells or promotes online gambling to hold an online bookmakers, online lottery or online casino licence, and section 79 lets a foreign-based operator have one only if it is registered in Kenya with a physical address there. A foreign operator that takes Kenyan bets without a licence commits an offence: a fine of up to KES 2 million or two years in prison for a person, up to KES 50 million for a company. Licences issued under the old Act stay valid until they expire. The Gambling Control (Licensing) Regulations and the Gambling Control (Conduct of Gambling Operations) Regulations, Legal Notices No. 111 and 112 of 2026, were gazetted on 15 July 2026.

The Act writes the payment rules into the licence. A licensee may receive a player’s money through a debit card, an electronic funds transfer, a mobile money transfer, a cash deposit or another method the Authority approves (section 73(4)); it must keep player money in a bank account or in mobile money (section 76(1)); it may not give credit to a player or induce a bet by advancing credit or through credit cards (sections 72(7) and 74(1)); it must take proof of age of majority before registering anyone (section 72(3)); and the smallest online bet is KES 20 (section 71(1)). Gambling adverts need the Authority’s approval and may not run on television or radio between 6 a.m. and 10 p.m. unless during a live sporting event.

Two taxes reach the bettor, both collected by the Kenya Revenue Authority. Since 1 July 2025 excise duty is 5% of the amount deposited into the betting wallet, in place of the 15% of each stake that applied before; the operator remits it within twenty-four hours, and the Finance Act 2026 keeps the 5% on deposits from 1 July 2026, horse racing included. Winnings carry a withholding tax of 20%, which the bookmaker deducts before paying and which is final: in the KRA’s own example a KES 50,000 win pays out KES 40,000. On top of that the operator pays betting tax of 15% of its gross gaming revenue.

Which payment methods work from Kenya

Of the 45 bookmakers open to Kenya, 39 list Visa and 37 Mastercard; 34 take Neteller, 31 Skrill, 22 Paysafecard and 15 Payz; 32 take Bitcoin and 29 Ethereum; 15 list Google Pay, 11 Apple Pay and 6 PayPal. Twenty-one list a bank transfer. Only four, 1xBet, 22Bet, Melbet and Secretbet, list M-Pesa and Airtel Money, and the same four list the mobile money services of Ghana and India, because the lists cover the whole cashier and not only the Kenyan one. The rules that decide what actually goes through:

• Debit, not credit. The Gambling Control Act names a debit card, an electronic funds transfer, mobile money and cash as the ways a licensee may take money; a credit card is not on the list, and the Act forbids a licensee to induce a bet through credit cards or by advancing credit. At a Kenyan-licensed site, deposit with a debit card or from your mobile money wallet.
• Mobile money is the legal default. The same Act lets a licensee keep player funds in mobile money and pay winnings into it, so a bookmaker licensed in Kenya may take deposits and pay winnings through M-Pesa or Airtel Money whether or not its global cashier list mentions them.
• Google Pay yes, Apple Pay no. Kenya is on Google’s list of countries where Google Pay works online and in apps; it is not on Apple’s list of countries that support Apple Pay, whose African entries are Egypt, Mauritius, Morocco and South Africa. A Kenyan Visa or Mastercard still works typed into the cashier.
• PayPal only through approved operators. PayPal admits gambling payments only from operators it has approved, in jurisdictions where the activity is legal. The six bookmakers that list PayPal offer it on the national sites where they hold that approval; register and open the cashier before you count on it.
• Crypto. The Virtual Assets Service Providers Act, 2025 (No. 20 of 2025) has been in force since 4 November 2025 and makes the Central Bank of Kenya and the Capital Markets Authority the licensing bodies; on 18 November 2025 the CBK said that neither had yet licensed any provider. Crypto is not among the deposit methods the gambling law lists, so the 32 bookmakers that take Bitcoin from Kenya are offshore sites licensed elsewhere, most of them in Curaçao, whose crypto guideline of June 2026 requires them to screen the wallet you deposit from and to verify that you own the wallet you withdraw to.
• Wallets that load from M-Pesa. Sticpay loads by M-Pesa at 3%, and AstroPay publishes an identity guide for Kenya; both then pay the bookmaker from the wallet balance.

Local payment methods

Mobile money is how Kenya pays. The Central Bank of Kenya counted 95.31 million registered mobile money accounts and 563,605 active agents in August 2026, and the Gambling Control Act lets a licensee hold player money in mobile money as well as in a bank account. The two services that matter:

M-Pesa

Safaricom’s M-PESA lets you deposit cash at an agent, send money, withdraw, and pay businesses through Lipa na M-PESA by Pay Bill, Till number or Pochi la Biashara; a business collects Pay Bill payments through its business number and an account reference, which at a bookmaker is your betting account. The limits published by Safaricom on 4 August 2026 are KES 250,000 per transaction, KES 500,000 a day and a KES 500,000 wallet balance. Deposits into the wallet and registration are free; Till payments cost the customer nothing; the Pay Bill tariff on Safaricom’s page runs from nothing for amounts up to KES 100 to KES 54 for amounts between KES 45,001 and 250,000, and the page does not say whether the customer or the business bears it. Four of the 45 bookmakers list M-Pesa in their cashier.

Airtel Money

Airtel Kenya has waived all person-to-person fees between Airtel Money customers, charges KES 7 to KES 108 to send to other networks and KES 11 to KES 309 to withdraw at an agent, and applies the same limits as M-PESA, KES 250,000 per transaction, KES 500,000 a day and a KES 500,000 balance, which it says were revised together with the Central Bank of Kenya. The same four bookmakers list it.

Mobile money operators are authorised by the Central Bank of Kenya as payment service providers under the National Payment System Act 2011, and the name on the wallet is the name the bookmaker will check against your betting account.

How to deposit and withdraw from Kenya

• Keep the betting account in shillings. 16 of the 45 bookmakers offer a KES account; at the others every deposit and withdrawal passes through a conversion by your bank, card issuer or wallet, at their rate.
• Expect an age and identity check before the first bet. The Act makes operators take proof of age of majority at registration and before a prize is paid, so have an identity document ready; the name on the M-Pesa line, the card and the betting account must match.
• Deposit by mobile money or debit card at a licensed site. Both are on the Act’s list of permitted methods; a credit card is not, and the law bans betting on credit. Use the Pay Bill number the bookmaker gives you and mind the KES 250,000 per-transaction and KES 500,000 daily limits of M-PESA and Airtel Money.
• Count the taxes before you work out odds. 5% excise on the amount you deposit since 1 July 2025, 20% withheld from winnings before they reach you, and a minimum online stake of KES 20.
• Withdraw to the wallet you deposited from. A licensee must hold player money in a bank account or mobile money and pays winnings back the same way; an M-Pesa withdrawal arrives in the wallet, and cashing it out at an agent costs KES 11 to 309 by amount.
• Offshore sites. The Act makes it an offence for a foreign operator to serve Kenya without a licence; the text we read has no offence for the player, but an unlicensed site is outside the Authority’s reach, and the Act’s protections, proof of age, player money held in a bank or mobile money account, payout rules, do not apply there.