The government, on Thursday, gave a deadline for gamblers to withdraw their money from betting firms that have been listed for closure.
Nation reported that a statement from the Betting Control and Licensing Board (BCLB), gave a 48-hour window for gamblers to withdraw their cash from the online wallets.
“This is to permit you to allow gamers of the subject firms to withdraw any funds they may have deposited in the material period within forty-eight hours from the date hereof and duly notify them of the same, quoting this letter as authority,” read communication to a local telco from Liti Wambua, the board’s acting director, in a letter dated July 11, 2019.
The government had highlighted a list of 27 betting companies, that it claimed had failed to comply with regulations.
In a twist of events, the affected companies claimed that they only learned of their blacklisting from the media and not from BCLB.
Earlier, BCLB had ordered mobile operators to terminate channels of payment, that gamblers used to deposit money to the betting firms.
However, by Thursday evening we established from a betting expert, that the payment platforms were still operational.
Nation also established that the firms, which have been listed for closure, will also suffer a crackdown in the banking industry.
“The Nation has learned that commercial banks have also been asked to follow through with the crackdown that will make it hard for betting firms to get their billions of shillings out of the country,” the newspaper reported.
In April, Interior CS Fred Matiang’i, had given the firms until July to comply with all industry regulations.
“To show that we are serious, all betting licenses in the country stand suspended effective July 1, 2019, unless the holders pay all their taxes,” he stated.
