Kenya Revenue Authority proposes new law to track betting activities

The Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) and State agencies in conjunction with the National Intelligence Service (NIS) have proposed a new law to tame and track gambling activities in real-time 

The new amendment, which has received the backing of the state, will create a platform that will help agencies track and control gambling activities from users that exploit the sites on suspicious money laundering and dirty inflow of money activities. The government is enforcing this change on account of concerns that:

betting firms are offering services where proceeds of crime and corruption is covered up without any confirmation from the KRA and the Betting Control and Licensing Board.

When implemented, the amendment will allow security agencies and Financial Reporting Centres (FRC) to track illegal money activities and bets whenever they are placed. The Bill read:

The Board [Gaming Board] shall establish a framework to facilitate real-time monitoring of online gaming activities which shall be accessible for monitoring by the Communications Authority of Kenya, the board and any relevant government agencies.

The newly proposed amendment will be “targeting users that deal with large transactions but place bets in small fractions”, therefore gamblers placing small regular bets will also be under suspicion by the government.  

Known for the inflow of dirty money majorly from criminal activities, Kenya has had a history of suspicious business deals  by people in the government who use such money to purchase estates and luxury cars.

In light of this, the Kenyan Parliament decided to change the betting bill focused on empowering CS Fred Matiangi (pictured right), refuted the move to freeze the CS accounts and that of other gamblers that require proof of the source of cash in their accounts before accessing their money. 

Source: E-Play Africa 

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