Tax on casino and slot winnings in Kenya: 5% on deposits, 5% on withdrawals

Which taxes apply when you play casino games or slots in Kenya?

Two taxes touch a player's money. Excise duty of 5% is charged on the amount deposited for gambling purposes, and withholding tax of 5% is deducted from withdrawals. A third rate, 20%, is reserved for lottery and prize-competition pay-outs.

Both tax definitions point to operators licensed under the Gambling Control Act, 2025. For what a lawful operator looks like, see whether online slots are legal in Kenya.

This guide states the law as amended up to the Finance Act, 2026, whose gambling provisions came into operation on 1 July 2026 under its section 1. It explains the rules and is not personal tax advice.

Excise duty on money deposited for gaming

Paragraph 4B in Part II of the First Schedule to the Excise Duty Act sets excise duty on gaming at five per cent of the amount deposited. Until 30 June 2026 the paragraph spoke of money deposited into a customer's gaming wallet. Section 36(b)(iii) of the Finance Act, 2026 replaced that wording with "for gambling purposes".

Section 36(c)(ii) of the same Act added a wide definition of "amount deposited" to Part III of the Schedule. It covers the total value of money or money's worth paid, transferred, credited or otherwise made available for betting or gambling to a Gambling Control Act licensee, whether the player or the operator provides it. It applies whether or not the value sits in an account or is converted into chips, tokens, tickets or credits.

So the base now reaches value the operator puts up, not only your own deposits. The Act does not say how such operator credit is valued.

The operator charges and remits the duty. KRA's public notice on the Finance Act, 2025 requires betting and gaming excise to reach the Commissioner within twenty-four hours from the close of each day's transactions. How the charge shows in your account is a matter for the operator's terms, not the Act.

Withholding tax on withdrawals

Section 2(1) of the Income Tax Act gives "withdrawals" a broad meaning: any amount of money, cash equivalent or money's worth paid or disbursed to the account of a player by a person licensed under the Gambling Control Act. A casino or slot payout to your account fits it. Section 2(d) of the Finance Act, 2026 put the definition in its current form.

The rate is five per cent, the same for residents and non-residents. Head B of the Third Schedule carries it twice, in paragraph 5(i) for residents and paragraph 3(i) for non-residents, each worded "in respect of withdrawals made by punters, five percent". The Finance Act, 2026 did not amend that item, so the 5% rate was already in place before it.

The payer deducts the tax, with withdrawals listed in section 35(3)(h) for residents and section 35(1)(i) for non-residents. Under section 35(5A), the Commissioner pays the tax deducted from withdrawals into the Sports, Arts and Social Development Fund.

One point stays open in the text. Section 76A bars a fresh assessment of income already taxed by a withholding tax that is also a final tax, yet the withdrawals item does not carry the words "final tax". Whether anything more is due is a question to put to KRA.

Where does the 20% rate fit?

The 20% rate belongs to "winnings", a separate term. Since sections 2(e) and 21 of the Finance Act, 2026, the Income Tax Act defines winnings as a pay-out from a lottery or prize competition by a Gambling Control Act licensee, taxed at twenty per cent (Third Schedule, Head B, paragraphs 3(y) and 5(r)). A slot or casino game is neither a lottery nor a prize competition, so its payouts meet the withdrawals item instead.

KRA's own FAQ page on betting, gaming and lottery tax still shows older wording. It says the Tax Laws (Amendment) Act reintroduced withholding tax on winnings at 20%, with winnings defined broadly across the sectors of the repealed Betting, Lotteries and Gaming Act. That page is undated, and its wording predates the 2026 definitions.

Illustrative example: one deposit and one withdrawal

The figures below are invented to show the arithmetic. They assume each 5% charge is worked out on the amount shown, which simplifies how an operator may present the excise.

Here the two taxes come to KES 250 on KES 2,000 deposited and KES 3,000 withdrawn. A session that ends below what you deposited still carries the excise on the deposit. The house edge of the games comes on top, and the RTP calculator turns a game's return into an expected cost for your stakes.

How the excise rates changed

Excise on gambling has changed both its rate and its base since 2019. Each step in the table comes from the source named in the last column.

The judgment's steps for 2021 and 2023 concern betting under paragraph 4A. The annotations on the consolidated Excise Duty Act show gaming's paragraph 4B inserted by the same 2021 section and amended in 2023, 2024 and 2025, but the 2021 gaming rate is not stated in the sources used here, so it is left out.

Taxes the operator pays, not the player

Some gambling taxes fall on the business itself. KRA's FAQ gives a gaming tax rate of 15%, defines gaming revenue as gross turnover less the amount paid out to customers as winnings, and sets remittance by the 20th day of the following month. These operator taxes sit in sections 29A, 44A, 55A and 59B of the repealed Betting, Lotteries and Gaming Act, which section 121(6)(a) of the Gambling Control Act, 2025 keeps in force until new provisions are enacted.

Advertising carries a charge of its own. Paragraph 8 in Part II of the First Schedule to the Excise Duty Act applies excise duty of fifteen per cent to fees charged for advertising betting, gaming, lotteries and prize competitions on the internet, social media, television, print, billboards and radio.

What this guide does not cover

Very large prizes follow their own payment tiers and identity checks, set out in how progressive jackpots grow and are paid. Other guides on stakes, prizes and tax sit under stakes, wins and tax.

Taxes are part of the cost of play, and play is not a way to earn money. If spending on slots worries you, the help and limits page lists the limit tools operators must offer and where to find support.