Treasury CS Henry Rotich Increases Taxes on Betting and Gaming Companies to 50% in 2017/2018 Budget

The government has dealt the betting and gaming industry a major blow after announcing that taxes on the sector would go up from 7.5% to 50%.

While reading the 2017/2018 budget statement Treasury Cabinet Secretary Henry Rotich highlighted that betting, lottery, gaming, and competition companies had grown tremendously, adding that the sector is inadequately regulated.

“Betting and gaming have become widespread in our society in an environment that is inadequately regulated,” CS Rotich stated.

The Treasury CS proposed that taxes be raised from the current 7.5 per cent (betting), 12 per cent (lottery), 15 per cent (gaming) and 15 per cent (competition) to a uniform 50 per cent for all categories.

“All proceeds of these will be put in the newly-created National Sports, Culture, and Arts Fund to help support the development of sports, culture and art in the country,” he said.

The gaming industry has been under close scrutiny in the recent past, with stakeholders calling on the government to weigh in and regulate the sector.