Woe to gamblers as government proposes increase of betting tax to 20%

Treasury Cabinet Secretary Njuguna Ndung’u on Thursday, June 13, 2024, proposed to increase the betting and gambling excise duty tax rate to 20 percent.

CS Ndung’u was speaking before the National Assembly during the reading of the 2024/2025 Financial Year budget statement.

“Participation in betting, gaming, lotteries continues to affect the social economic fabric of our society given the addictive nature,” he said.

According to the CS, increasing the excise duty rate on betting and gambling will discourage people from participating in it.

The CS also said that the government had raised the tax rate from 7.5% during the last Financial Year, to 12.5%, and yet Kenyans had continued to participate.

In addition, he mentioned that schoolchildren have also been part of the gambling.

''The participation rate by Kenyan citizens including the school-going children and young adults continues to rise,'' CS Ndung’u said.

In the 2021 Finance Bill, the government set the excise duty at 20 percent of the amount staked on betting products.

However, the Finance Committee again made changes, this time reducing the stake levy to 7.5 percent which was then retained in the 2022 fiscal year and signed into law.

It was later raised to 12.5 percent, and the treasury has yet again proposed a further increase to 20 per cent, a rate that was highly contested by Members of Parliament in 2020.

Jumping now to 2024, the tax rate has officially been increased to a higher rate of 20%, '' To further discourage this behaviour, I propose to increase the excise duty tax rate to 20 percent.”