The Betting Control and Licensing Board (BCLB), has ordered telecommunications giant; Safaricom to suspend M-Pesa paybill accounts and SMS short codes for 27 betting firms including SportPesa and Betin because the operating licenses for the year starting on the 1st of July 2019, were not renewed.
Betting Control and Licensing Board (BCLB) claims that the 27 firms have not yet met the licensing requirements which are currently undisclosed, adding that they are being vetted to establish if they are fit to hold gambling permits.
The Gambling regulator’s order comes just weeks after the State said it had refused to renew operating permits for 19 gambling firms and deferred eight others in a shake up of an industry that generates more than 200 billion Kenyan Shillings in annual sales.
Telecommunications giant; Safaricom, has stated that the order, which will affect 12 million betting accounts, has left it at a crossroads because some of the accounts involved have money and some firms like Betin and SportPesa, have secured orders to continue operations.
The Betting Control and Licensing Board (BCLB), stated that the renewal of the licences is also dependent on the firms’ operations and the directors of the firms, getting a clean bill of health in an ongoing security vetting process.
The imminent switch off, will disable the betting firms given that the bulk of their gambling activities take place via the internet, as well as through phones and mobile services like M-Pesa, thus allowing users to place bets, pay off losses and get winnings via their devices.
In a letter by the Betting Control and Licensing Board (BCLB), to Safaricom on the 10th of July 2019, the Gambling Regulator said, “Consequently, we request you to suspend pay bills and short codes until otherwise advised,”.
Safaricom believes going through with the order, it will be in breach of the law to disable operations of firms like SportPesa and Betin given they have court orders allowing them to continue their operations.
