A new betting site's domain is not on the regulator's list: what that means

What the list on gra.go.ke shows, and when it last changed

The regulator publishes one list of licensed operators, headed Licensed Gaming Companies for the Trading Period 2025/26. It has eight columns: No., Operators Name, Trading Name, BK, PG, PL, STATUS and DOMAINS. The page does not explain the abbreviations; the column headed BK carries bookmaker licence numbers, and the Act's other licence categories are public gaming and public lottery.

On 29 October 2026 the table held 187 operator rows, numbered 1 to 188 with number 119 skipped. The STATUS column reads Renewal on 170 rows and New on 17. What that word records is covered in what New means in the status column; this guide is about the last column.

The page itself shows no date. The site's own content API records the page as last modified on 19 March 2026. Anything that happened after that date, whether a licence issued, a domain added or a name changed, cannot appear on a page that has not been edited since.

Four reasons a domain can be missing

A domain is absent from the list for one of four reasons, and only one of them means the site is unlicensed. The first is an empty cell. Sixty-two of the 187 rows show Nil in the DOMAINS column (row 43 reads nil in lower case): 45 of them have status Renewal, and all 17 rows with status New are among them.

The second is lag. Regulation 30(1) of the Gambling Control (Licensing) Regulations, 2026 (L.N. 111) kept licences issued under the repealed Act in force for sixty days from the publication of the Regulations on 30 June 2026, and regulation 30(2) required holders to apply for the appropriate licence within that period. That window closed at the end of August 2026, five months after the page was last modified.

The third is a licensee's extra or changed address. An online licence application under regulation 11(2)(g) of L.N. 111 names the proposed gambling platform and domain name, and regulation 41(a) of the Gambling Control (Conduct of Gambling Operations) Regulations, 2026 (L.N. 112) requires an online system to maintain an approved domain name. A domain approved after March 2026 is not on the page.

The fourth is that no licence exists. Section 28(1) of the Gambling Control Act, 2025 forbids offering any gambling activity or service unless it is licensed under the Act. A site that appears on no row under any column, and that the Authority cannot match to a licence, falls here.

A licence with no listed domain

Every one of the 17 New rows shows Nil under DOMAINS. Thirteen of them carry a number in the BK column, three in the PG column and one in the PL column, so each has a licence number on the list and no website beside it. The page gives no reason, and this guide does not supply one.

Section 39(1) of the Act requires the Authority to keep a register recording, for every licence, the licensee's name, identity and registration number, the gambling activity, the counties, the expiry date, and particulars of any revocation, suspension or amendment. The published page records fewer items than that: no expiry date, no county and, on 62 rows, no domain. Section 39(2) opens the full register to the public at reasonable times on payment of a prescribed fee.

So a trading name on a New row with a Nil domain is a licence without a published address, not evidence against the site. It is not evidence for a particular website either, because any page can print a trading name copied from the list. The period the list describes is explained in what the trading period on the list means.

Cases and what each one means

The table sets out the situations a reader meets when the address bar and the list do not agree. The right-hand column states what the law and the page support, and nothing more.

How to confirm with the Authority

The regulator's website shows a toll-free line, 0800-723-770, in the footer block headed Need assistance?. Call it with four items ready: the company name shown on the site, the trading name, any licence number the site displays, and the domain from the address bar. Ask whether that domain belongs to the licence on the list.

Section 36(3) of the Act requires an online licensee to display its licence on its platform, so the company name and licence number should be on the site itself, usually in the footer. Compare them with the Operators Name and BK columns before you call. The full routine, including what to do when a name is spelt differently, is in how to check a new betting site is licensed.

Several e-mail addresses on gra.go.ke, including the one in the footer, still end in bclb.go.ke, the domain of the former Board, and the footer still reads BCLB Kenya 2023. Use the phone line and keep a note of the date and the answer. If the Authority says the site holds no licence, the next step is reporting the unlicensed site.

Treat the site as unconfirmed until it is matched

Unconfirmed is the right word for a domain that is not on the list. The protections in the Act are written for licensees: section 76(2) on money held for players, section 70(1) on crediting winnings within two days, section 80 on taking an online dispute to the Gambling Appeals Tribunal within fourteen days. Until the Authority ties the domain to a licence, you cannot tell whether any of them applies to the site in front of you.

Unconfirmed also means not condemned. A New licensee whose domain cell reads Nil may be exactly what it says it is. The difference between the two outcomes is one phone call, and your money stays in your own account while you make it.

What this guide does not cover

The list does not show when a licence was issued or when it expires, and this guide does not estimate either. Under regulation 22 and the Fourth Schedule of L.N. 111 an online gambling licence runs for one year, but the page gives no start date to count from.

A domain on the list shows that the regulator recorded it; it says nothing about how the site treats players. Other guides cover the duties a licensee owes from day one and the warning signs of the early weeks; all of them are listed in the guides hub.