On Friday the 12th Of July 2019 telecommunications giant; Safaricom, officially suspended the M-Pesa Paybill accounts for SportPesa, Betin and other betting firms, two days after the Kenyan government issued a directive.
Since Friday, users of said betting companies, have been unable to load funds into their betting wallets, due to a directive by the Betting Control and Licensing Board (BCLB), despite court orders which suspended the move.
The Kenyan High Court early last week, suspended the decision by the Betting Control and Licensing Board (BCLB) to withdraw the operating license of Gamcode Limited, which currently operates as Betin Kenya.
The High Court Judge in his ruling last week, said, “A conservatory order be and is hereby issued staying or suspending the effect of the betting board’s decision of rejecting the applicant’s application for the renewal of its 2019/2020 bookmaker’s licence, until July 16,”.
The telecommunications giant; Safaricom, announced that it had suspended 955100, which is the Paybill number for Pevans East Africa who operates as SportPesa and further directed customers to contact Betin Kenya for any difficulties in making their payments through the betting firm’s 997270 Paybill number.
The response to attempts by users of SportPesa who tried making payments into their betting accounts via M-Pesa, read: “Failed, dear customer this paybill is unavailable due to the government directive to suspend Betting Paybill numbers, Kindly contact your Betting Company,”.
The response to attempts by users of Gamcod Limited (which operates as Betin Kenya), who tried making payments into their betting accounts via M-Pesa, read “Dear customers, for any queries regarding betting transactions, kindly contact your betting service provider for more information, Betin,”.
The suspension of the paybill numbers comes just days after Safaricom stated the directive to suspend them, left it at a cross-road because some of the accounts have money and some firms like SportPesa and Betin have already secured orders to continue their operations.
The Betting Control and Licensing Board (BCLB), had through a letter on the 10th of July 2019 ordered Safaricom to suspend the paybill numbers because the betting firms had not renewed their operating licences for the year starting on the 1st of July 2019.
The Betting Control and Licensing Board (BCLB), added in the letter to Safaricom that, “Consequently, we request you to suspend pay bills and short codes until otherwise advised,”.
The Betting Control and Licensing Board (BCLB), claims that the betting 27 firms are yet to meet undisclosed licensing requirements and are being vetted to establish if they are fit to have gambling permits in the midst of demands by the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) on two major firms to clear their withholding tax arrears.
The betting industry in Kenya, currently records an average of 200 billion Kenyan Shillings in annual sales, a development which has also attracted international firms like Betway.
The growth has however, unfortunately come at the expense of Kenya’s youths who have reported borrowed loans to finance their gambling habits.
The Interior Secretary Fred Matiang’i in April 2019, made it known that an estimate of about half a million youths in Kenya, have been blacklisted by mobile lenders for loans they had taken to finance their gambling habits.
In addition, a survey by think-tank Consultative Group to Assist the Poor (CGAP) found that the number of Kenyan youths blacklisted by credit bureaus rose from 150,000 to 500,000 between 2016 to 2018, a finding which further strengthens the theory that some of the money does ends up in gambling.
