President William Ruto's administration has prepared two new bills to be tabled in the National Assembly to strengthen the planned National Lottery.
The Ruto administration, through the Presidential Taskforce on the establishment of a national lottery, has prepared the Gambling Control Bill, 2023, and the National Lottery Bill, 2023.
With the bills, the government aims at shoring up the Sports Arts and Social Development Fund funds.
Currently, the Sports Arts and Social Development Fund receives funding from betting, lotteries, and gaming companies in Kenya.
A 15 per cent tax is levied on betting, lottery, and gaming. Additionally, there is a 20 per cent withholding tax on the winnings.
The two bills will address issues such as license fees for operators, the duration of a license, and the kind of good causes that the money will go to.
In a gazette notice published on February 16, 2023, Ruto appointed billionaire businessman Narendra Raval to lead a 25-member task force to look into setting up a national lottery.
The task force was supposed to exist for 3 months and to develop policy and implementation recommendations for establishing the national lottery.
According to the gazette notice that set up the task force, the money collected will be used for good causes and amelioration of the plight of needy people.
The bills are supposed to harness the billions of shillings spent on gambling transactions. In 2021, Kenyans spent more than Ksh169 billion on gambling, according to a report by one of the leading telcos.
Betting firms are set to face stiff competition from the government if the bills become law. Kenyans will have the option of participating in the national lottery instead of commercial betting and gaming.
This is not the first attempt at creating a National Lottery. In 2019, former President Uhuru Kenyatta tried to amend the Gaming Bill, 2019 in a way that would repeal the Betting, Lotteries and Gaming Act (Cap. 131) Laws of Kenya) of 1966.
The Kenya Charity Sweepstake and Win Lotto are among public lotteries that have been around for decades. However, they are not treated as national lotteries.
