The Public Finance Management Act 2018 stipulates that 40 per cent of betting taxes be channelled to social development including universal healthcare.
The money will be withdrawn from a fund created with the new betting taxes after the rise in gaming levies in January.
The government increased the tax rate on gross profits for sports betting firms, lotteries and casinos to 35 per cent in January, from 7.5 per cent, to create a fund for sports, culture and the arts.
Universal healthcare will take the bulk of the billions of shillings raised from the higher betting taxes, new regulations show.
The Public Finance Management Act 2018 stipulates that 40 per cent of betting taxes be channelled to social development including universal healthcare.
The money will be withdrawn from a fund created with the new betting taxes after the rise in gaming levies in January.
“The proceeds of the fund shall be apportioned as follows…40 per cent to social development including universal health care,” said Treasury Cabinet secretary Henry Rotich in the newly published regulations.
The government increased the tax rate on gross profits for sports betting firms, lotteries and casinos to 35 per cent in January, from 7.5 per cent, to create a fund for sports, culture and the arts. It says the rapid growth of betting in a loosely regulated environment has hurt the young and vulnerable.
Last year, lotteries were taxed at five per cent, betting firms —bookmakers - at 7.5 per cent, casino gambling at 12 per cent and competitions like raffles at 15 per cent.
Under the regulations, 35 per cent of the fund will go to promotion and development of sports, 20 per cent to arts while the remaining five per cent will be channelled to strategic interventions.
Kenya has an ambitious plan of introducing a universal healthcare scheme, which provides for medical insurance coverage for all with the government paying for the poor and the old.
The State plans to implement the scheme through the National Hospital Insurance Fund.
The Treasury allocated Sh2.5 billion in the current financial year for the rollout of universal health coverage in four counties on a pilot basis.
Gambling, which mostly takes place online, has grown rapidly in recent years and emerged as a key tax generator for the state.
Services such as M-Pesa allow users to place bets, pay off losses and get winnings on their phone without needing a bank account.
Industry executives say about seven million out of 45 million Kenyans engage in betting. No figures are publicly available on the industry’s earnings.
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