If you're an online casino player in Kenya, then you'll be able to find many sites that accept deposits from you. You can look through hundreds of options here on Casino Guru, and sort them according to your preferences.
To do this, you can use our rating and review system put together by our team of experts. They assess each casino according to its fairness and reliability, and you can use this page's filters to refine your search. You can also read about Kenya gambling laws, for both land-based and internet betting.
- Land-based gambling in Kenya
- Kenya online gambling
- How to choose the best Kenya online casino
Land-based gambling in Kenya
Following Kenya's independence from the UK in 1963, the newly formed government moved to legalize sports betting and certain casino games after the country had previously followed strict colonial laws.
The Betting Lotteries and Gaming Act (1966) introduced legislation that still exists today: gambling is legal, but operators must apply for a license and pay certain fees and taxes. The Betting Control and Licensing Board (BCLB), a government body, was responsible for administering the law, and had the power to hand out punishment to unlicensed entities.
The Kenyan Gaming Bill in 2019 sought to update the country's gambling laws and introduce a new national lottery. Land-based operators have seen the cost of obtaining a license increase. On top of this, they must now also pay a fee every few years to renew the license. Fines for breaking the rules are also significantly higher than before.
The Bill also took steps to limit betting advertising, following concerns about problem gambling in the country, with TV and radio ads required to spend a percentage of their airtime promoting responsible gambling. Companies were also banned from broadcasting the content during the daytime.
Note: In terms of taxes on players, as of 2018 players are obliged to pay 20% on all winnings. However, there are still doubts about whether the tax should be deducted automatically from gross winnings, or if the player should personally declare it. This could vary from betting operator to betting operator, so it's always a sensible idea for players to conduct their own research on tax payments.
With gambling being such a popular pastime in Kenya, particularly sports betting, it's unclear how far the government will go to control it in the future. For this reason, any of the above gambling laws could change at any given time.
Online gambling in Kenya
The 2019 Gaming Bill was introduced partly due to the surge in online gambling in Kenya. Like in many African countries, internet access is rapidly increasing due to the widespread use of mobile devices compared to a decade ago.
While online gambling is perfectly legal in Kenya, the Bill looked to introduce measures to combat problem gambling issues. A key tenet of this was to impose a minimum bet amount of KES50 (just under half a US dollar), a figure much higher than that imposed by many operators. The thinking here presumably being that low-income players may be put off by the higher stake, but you could also argue that they are more likely to lose all their money or find other ways of getting more money to gamble.
The measures also altered how online players could deposit money. Only debit or credit cards permitted by the BCLB were allowed, while the Bill banned mobile transfers completely. This provoked a public outcry, however, with the payment method one of the most popular in the country. It's possible that this may change soon, with a ban on credit cards, like in the UK, also on the horizon.
Note: With the Bill being such a controversial topic, it's likely that Kenyan players will see more upheaval in the future. Major operators Sportpesa and Betin withdrew from the country in protest at the measures, and the outlook appears rocky for the industry.
Despite this, there are still a range of online casinos for Kenyan players to choose from, with a wide range of games for Kenyan players to legally play.
How to choose the best Kenya online casino
Seeing as you're most likely here to find a great Kenya casino to play on, it's important to know how to find the best site for your needs. You'll want to find a reliable enterprise, one that has a great range of games and a capacity to pay out big wins.
This page is designed to help you find a great casino more smoothly. For each one, you'll see a rating and a review: these are provided by our team of experts who objectively assess each Kenya casino according to its individual merits.
Each casino you see on here will definitely accept players from Kenya, first of all. You can filter these down by using the tabs at the top of the page. The 'Recommended' tab, to start with, will give you the very best Kenyan casinos out there, the ones that our team rated the highest. Secondly, the 'Newly opened' tab will give you the latest casinos added to the list. 'All', meanwhile, simply draws up the full list of eligible sites.
Note: If you'd like more options to narrow down your search, then you can also use other filters. If you'd like to find casinos that accept the Kenyan Shilling (KES), for example, then you can use the 'Currency' filter. Alternatively, use the 'Licensing Authority' filter and select 'Kenya' there to only see casinos with the local license. You can also find mobile casinos that accept Kenyan players by ticking the relevant box at the top of the list.
To top it all off, take a look at our How to choose an online casino article for a detailed review of the casino selection process. Reading this will give you the best chance of choosing the perfect casino for you.