Help, limits and self-exclusion

If you need to talk to someone now

The Gambling Regulatory Authority's website shows a toll-free assistance line: 0800-723-770. If you are in immediate danger or thinking of harming yourself, contact emergency services or someone you trust first.

Signs that play has stopped being a choice

• Staking more than you decided to, or going back to recover what was lost.
• Borrowing, selling things or missing bills, rent or school fees to fund play.
• Hiding how much time or money goes into it.
• Playing to escape worry or low mood rather than for the game itself.
• Feeling restless or irritable when you cannot play.

None of these makes you a bad person. Slots are built around a house edge, so the long-run average result of continued play is a loss; the RTP calculator shows that arithmetic without judgement.

Self-exclusion under the Act

Section 115(1) of the Gambling Control Act, 2025 lets a person who recognises that their gambling is harmful voluntarily enter a self-exclusion agreement with a licensee, covering all gambling establishments and all controlled games, including online gambling. The person notifies the Authority, which keeps a register and notifies all licensees (s.115(2)-(3)). An operator that fails to implement a written self-exclusion request within seven days commits an offence (s.115(5)).

The 2026 Conduct of Gambling Operations Regulations set out the route. A person applies to the Authority on Form 1 in the First Schedule, stating the period and attaching a copy of their national ID or passport; the Authority acknowledges within seven days (L.N. 112 r.70(1)-(3)). The form offers six months, one year, two years or an indefinite period, and the period cannot be shortened before it expires (Form 1, Part C). While registered, a person may not place a bet, open a gambling account, receive promotions or claim gambling winnings (r.70(5)). Online platforms must provide a real-time self-exclusion mechanism (r.67(3)), and a licensee must deny access to a self-excluded person, refund deposits taken in breach within seven days and cancel winnings so obtained (r.74(1)).

Limits every licensee must offer

Regulation 84 of L.N. 112 requires operators to give players real-time tools: deposit limits on a daily, weekly and monthly basis; loss, session and expenditure limits; reality-check pop-ups showing how long you have played; and an easy option to self-exclude for at least twenty-four hours, linked to the national self-exclusion register. The Regulations prescribe the tools, not the figures; you set the amounts. Setting a deposit limit before you play is the simplest of them.

The Act also bars licensees from providing credit to players or making offers designed to induce people to gamble or gamble more (s.74(1)), and from accepting a wager unless the account already holds enough approved funds to cover it (s.73(3)).

What to do today

1. Call 0800-723-770, or ask someone you trust to call with you.
2. Use the operator's self-exclusion option now; online it must work in real time (r.67(3)). Then apply to the Authority on Form 1 so the exclusion covers every licensee.
3. Set deposit and loss limits on any account you keep (r.84).
4. Remove payment shortcuts from your phone and ask your mobile money provider about transaction limits.
5. Tell one person. Harm grows in silence.

Age

Gambling is for adults of the age of majority, which in Kenya is eighteen. Operators must require proof of age of majority before registering a player (s.72(3)) and before paying out a prize (s.70(6)). If someone under eighteen is gambling, the operator has a duty to stop it, and the Authority receives complaints from the public (s.10(m)).