How to report an unlicensed betting site in Kenya

Who takes a report about an unlicensed site

The Gambling Regulatory Authority of Kenya is the regulator established by section 6(1) of the Gambling Control Act, 2025. Section 6(3) makes it the successor of the Betting Control and Licensing Board, which is why the older name still appears on its website. A report about unlicensed gambling goes to this Authority, not to the former Board.

Section 10(m) of the Act gives the Authority the function of receiving and determining complaints from companies and the public on matters pertaining to games of chance. Section 10(k) adds the duty to monitor and alleviate illegal cross-border gambling together with county governments. A report from a player is the kind of information both functions rely on.

Before you report, confirm that the site really is missing from the regulator's list. The steps in how to check a new betting site is licensed take a few minutes and show whether the company, the trading name or the domain appears anywhere on that list.

The channels shown on gra.go.ke

The regulator's website shows one toll-free line and one written route. The table reproduces them as the site showed them on 29 October 2026. Most e-mail addresses on the site end in bclb.go.ke, and the one that does not, [email protected], sits on a page whose footer still gives a bclb.go.ke address, so treat the addresses as unconfirmed.

Start with the toll-free line. It costs nothing, and the person who answers can say which written route the Authority wants for a report about an unlicensed site. Note the date, the time and the name you were given.

The complaints page says the Board receives, investigates and arbitrates complaints about lotteries, gaming, betting and casinos. That text predates the 2025 Act. The function it describes now belongs to the Authority under section 10(m).

What to include in the report

The Act does not set out a form for reporting an unlicensed site, and the complaints page refers to a general complaint form. The details below let the Authority match your report against its register and against the offences described further down. Gather them before you call or write.

1. The domain, copied from the address bar exactly, including the ending such as .ke or .com. A site may run several addresses, so list every one you saw.
2. Screenshots of the home page, of the footer where section 36(3) requires an online licensee to display its licence, of the deposit screen and of any page that names a company.
3. Payment details: the paybill or till number, the phone number you were asked to send money to, and the account name shown on your mobile money confirmation message.
4. Dates and times of each visit, deposit, bet and withdrawal attempt, with the amounts in shillings.
5. The advert that led you to the site: the channel, the date and a screenshot or photo.
6. What you ask for: a decision on whether the site holds a licence, and a note of what you lost, if anything.

Keep the originals of your mobile money messages. A payment number is the detail that connects a website to a person in Kenya, and the Regulations treat payment processing for an unlawful platform as an offence in its own right, as the next section shows.

The offences your report points to

Section 28(1) of the Gambling Control Act, 2025 states that a person shall not offer any gambling activity or service unless it is licensed under the Act. Section 28(2) lists bookmaking, online gambling and the provision of gambling software or platforms among the licensable activities. A website that takes bets from people in Kenya without a licence offers a gambling service within that section.

Section 79 matters when the site belongs to a company abroad. Section 79(1) allows such an operator an online gambling licence only if it is registered in Kenya, has a physical address registered in Kenya and meets the requirements set in regulations. The guide to foreign new betting sites targeting Kenya explains how to tell a foreign site and what the law does about it.

Regulation 102(2) of the Gambling Control (Conduct of Gambling Operations) Regulations, 2026 (L.N. 112) defines an illegal gambling platform as any website, application, digital device or electronic system that offers gambling without the authorisation, licence or approval the law requires. Regulation 102(1) then reaches the people who keep such a platform running from Kenya. That is why the payment number in your report carries weight.

Why reporting matters

The protections in the Act attach to licensees. Section 76(2) requires a licensee to hold money at least equal to all player balances, section 70(1) requires online winnings to be credited within two days, and section 80 lets a party to an online gambling dispute appeal to the Gambling Appeals Tribunal within fourteen days. None of these binds a site that holds no licence.

A report is therefore the one lever a player has against an unlicensed site, and it protects the next person who sees the same advert. The red flags of a new betting site describe the signs that usually come before such a report: no licence line, deposits to a personal number, no limits tools.

Section 37(1) also lets the Authority investigate the conduct of a licensee on its own motion or on information from any person. That covers a licensed company that runs an extra domain which is not on the list, or that advertises without approval. A report about a licensee goes through the same channels.

What happens next, as far as the Act says

The Act gives the Authority the function of receiving and determining complaints under section 10(m). The penalties in sections 79(3), 87(4) and 98 apply upon conviction, which means a court imposes them, not the Authority. The sections cited in this guide set no deadline for the Authority to answer a report.

The two-day and 72-hour timelines in regulation 9(2) of L.N. 112 bind a licensee's customer care centre, not the Authority. So do the duties described in the complaints process a new licensee must offer. A timeline written for licensed sites does not transfer to a report about an unlicensed one.

Keep your own record: the date you called, any reference or name you were given, and copies of what you sent. If the site later appears on the regulator's list, that record still shows when it took money without a licence.

What this guide does not cover

A dispute with a licensed site over a bet, a withdrawal or an account follows a different route. It starts at the operator's customer care centre, which section 68(8) requires to be in Kenya, passes to the Authority after 72 hours under regulation 9(2)(e) of L.N. 112, and may end at the Tribunal under section 80.

Recovering money from an unlicensed site is not something the sections cited here provide for. The security bond under section 40 and the Third Schedule covers a licensee's liabilities, not those of an unlicensed operator. Treat money sent to an unlicensed site as gone unless the Authority or a court decides otherwise.

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