According to a recent Geopoll survey carried out among youth between the ages of 17-35, Kenya has the highest number of betting youth in Sub-Saharan Africa.
At 96 per cent, Kenya had the highest number of mobile usage for gambling while South Africa, though having the highest rate of mobile penetration in Africa, has the lowest usage of the mobile for gambling at 48%.
The report notes that a good of millennials in Sub-Saharan Africa are using their mobile phones to bet on football spending not more than $50USD per month. At USD 50 per month, Kenya leads in amount of money spent on gambling with most the Kenyan youths betting once a week unlike other nations where the youth spend less than USD 50 a month and most bet only once a month.
“Gambling is becoming popular among male African Millennials in SSA due to their high affinity towards sports and the proliferation of local sports betting players.” says Geopoll.
“Most youth (54%) in SSA have tried their hand at gambling. Kenya has the highest number of youth who have participated in gambling or betting in the past at 76% followed by Uganda at 57%. Ghana has the least number at 42%” read the report.
The frequency of gambling is highest among Kenyans compared to their fellow Africans. Whilst the rest bet mostly once a month, a majority of Kenyans bet once a week with sports betting, especially football being the most preferred.
Football was the most popular gambling option all other countries except in South Africa where lotteries are a more preferred gambling choice compared to football, casino, racing and poker.
While reading the Budget for 2017/2018 on 30th March, Kenya’s Cabinet Secretary for Treasury Henry Rotich proposed to raise taxes for betting, lottery, gaming and companies running prize competitions from 7.5%, 5%, 12% and 15% respectively to a uniform tax rate of 50% for all categories. He said the vice had become “widespread in an environment that is inadequately regulated.”
??? #BudgetKE2017 pic.twitter.com/wIallmnaaP
— Kenyanwallstreet (@kenyanwalstreet) April 1, 2017
Revenue collected from this tax will feed the National Sports, Culture and Arts Fund.
Related;
