According to a money laundering risks review report launched by Interior C.S, Fred Matiang’i, payouts by betting companies present risks for money laundering.

The government fears that betting firm owners could be using their companies to launder billions of shillings.

It is not uncommon for betting companies in Kenya to pay jackpots of up to 250 million shillings.

The law does not require betting firms to report suspicious transactions to the Financial Reporting Centre (FRC)—which is mandated to track illicit money.

In 2020, the FRC started investigating SportPesa for possible money laundering in the wake of claims the sports betting firm wired 33.3 billion shillings from its local accounts to offshore banks.