Kenya’s GRA Pushes Back on Finance Bill 2026 Tax Proposal
Kenya’s gambling regulator has raised concerns over a Finance Bill 2026 proposal to introduce a 20% Withholding Tax (WHT) on gambling winnings and prize competitions. The Gambling Regulatory Authority (GRA), which now operates under the Gambling Control Act 2025, said the current tax framework has already strengthened revenue collection, with Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) data showing gambling tax revenue rose 11% to KSh 28.45 billion by April 2026, up from KSh 25.24 billion the previous year.
The remarks were made while the Authority appeared before the National Assembly’s Departmental Committee during a stakeholder engagement on the Finance Bill (National Assembly Bills No. 26 of 2026) on May 26. According to the regulator, many prize competitions are structured as marketing promotions rather than gambling. In most cases, participants do not place bets or pay an entry fee, but instead stand a chance to win items such as vouchers, electronics, or other goods.
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The GRA warned that applying tax to such rewards would be difficult in practice, particularly where prizes are non-cash. It also raised concerns over enforcement, noting that valuing and taxing physical items like shopping vouchers, household goods, spa treatments, or car servicing would not be straightforward. “Enforcement of collection of tax on physical products for instance, household goods, electronics, shopping vouchers and services, spa treatment or car servicing won by a player is practicably not enforceable,” the regulator said in its submission.
The Authority also flagged a separate proposal in the Bill that would expand taxable deposits to include cash equivalents such as tokens, chips, and promotional credits. It warned that this could blur the distinction between actual deposits and promotional value, making compliance more complex to track. To simplify the system, the regulator proposed that taxation should apply only to actual cash deposited into a player’s wallet from any source.
