Betting agents operating under various betting companies have pointed fingers at the government for maintaining a hard-line stance and refusing to engage them in the stalemate surrounding the gambling industry in Kenya.
The agents said the latest stand by the government on the betting sector is ill-informed and aimed at hurting specific betting companies,
Their statement came two days after the Government suspended paybill numbers and SMS shortcodes for betting companies whose licences were already suspended.
The agents were speaking in Embakasi where they called on Interior CS Fred Matiang’i to have a roundtable with betting companies stakeholders who were more than ready to adhere to the set regulations, before deciding to go hard on them because it has paralyzed the betting industry.
They further said that the Government had taken away the only source of income for many youths who are unemployed while failing terribly to keep its promise of creating more jobs for the youth
The government is targeting 27 betting firms including Sportpesa which it claims failed to meet some standards and even tax evasion which many of these firms have strongly refused.
