The government has maintained its hard stance on non-compliant betting and gaming firms, insisting that it will not allow money launderers and tax evaders to ruin our society.
The declaration deals a further blow to giant betting firm Sportpesa that only suffered a setback on Friday after a regulator withdrew the license for Milestone Games Limited.
A tough-talking Interior CS Fred Matiangi said the government will not go back on its resolve to tame rogue betting firms ruining the society.
“We will not go back on the decision that we have made as a government. And Kenyans can rest assured, absolutely on this matter,” Matiangi said on Saturday.
The CS likened the firms to criminals wreaking havoc in the county and vowed not to allow them to operate in Kenya.
“We are not going to allow criminals, money launderers, and all manner of shadowy characters to come around our country to be doing all these manners of things, gambling and so on, tax evaders and wreak havoc in our society and so on as it were, ” he insisted.
On Friday, Betting Control and Licensing Board withdrew the license for Milestone Games Ltd to operate in the country. The first used Sportpesa as its brand name.
However, SportPesa says it is still in business because its holding company Milestone has obtained an order in court barring BCLB from interfering with its operations.
High Court judge P. Nyamweya directed that stay orders be followed until the court rules on the case on January 25, 2021.
SportPesa confirmed that their Paybill number with Safaricom was still in operation.
BCLB said it conducted due diligence and found out the company changed its list of directors after being granted a license for the year 2020-21.