Kenya’s parliament has scrapped the controversial tax on sports betting turnover, although it remains to be seen whether President Uhuru Kenyatta is on board with this plan.
On Tuesday, Kenya’s National Assembly approved the Finance Bill 2020, which governs how the government will finance its operations in the fiscal year starting July 1. Among the bill’s features is the elimination of the controversial excise tax on betting that turned the country’s wagering market upside down over the past year.
Last summer, Kenya’s Betting Control & Licensing Board (BCLB) suspended the licenses of a couple dozen gambling operators, including market-leaders SportPesa and Betin, over claims that the operators owed the government hundreds of millions of dollars in unpaid taxes.
The source of the friction was the government’s view that a 20% tax on bettors’ winnings that was suspended in 2016 then reintroduced in 2018 applied to the total sum bookmakers paid to winners, i.e. including the original betting stake, making it a 20% tax on turnover. SportPesa, Betin and other operators ultimately shut their Kenyan operations rather than pay the disputed arrears.