It’s difficult to find any information about casinos in the country. A good deal of the search results will direct you to various websites, some of which are genuine and others are outright con schemes. Beyond the details of physical location, opening hours and a few other extra services around the casinos, you will not find any more useful information. If you broaden your search from casinos to general gambling and betting you will get more results about the recent rage about mobile gambling. there ought to be more information about gambling in casinos across the country.

A 2009 report indicates that there are 15 casinos in the country, quite a small number. In the search results casinos will only be mentioned in passing in most articles about tourism and the service industry, and in connection with money laundering and financing terrorism. Have they become obsolete in terms of business ventures and sources of employment? I have the notion that I have been seeing fewer and fewer of them through the years. Come to think of it, I’ve never seen an ad for a casino on TV. I’m forced to believe these places are well-kept secrets that meant for anyone, where rich men smoke cigars, drink bourbon and bet a few hundred thousands each round. Either that or Kenyans prefer a different kind of gambling.

Could it be that Kenyans have no idea of how to play blackjack or Limit Omaha Hold Em? I doubt it, although I did not know what Limit Omaha Hold Em meant until two weeks ago. It’s true that some of the games can be quite expensive, but not always. In online gambling it is possible to buy seats in lucrative games by winning a couple of small stakes games. There is great potential in online gambling. However, current legislation stifles the growth online gambling. Lack of a secure and effective online payment processing has also made it difficult to adopt mobile gambling. The cost of data is still not low enough as to permit a continuous connection. This might explain why mobile gambling has become more popular.

With the spread of mobile technology and ease of accessibility it seems like people prefer the kind of betting that takes place through SMS and charity sweepstakes only, where the individual cost are not as high as when you are playing blackjack in a casino, virtual or otherwise. In other words, people loose more at the tables than when they play Tazama Chapaa. Why would I want to sit at a table with strangers betting my salary in a game of poker when I could buy a number of sweepstake cards for a much lower price?

You might say in card games it’s possible to come up with a strategy based on calculating hand odds and probabilities (and a remarkable ability to read faces, thanks to PSYCH 101 and crazy hours spent at the playing table), whereas in a sweepstake you are competing against millions, certain of your very minimal odds of winning. When you play poker you have a better chance of controlling your winnings. Yet there is no data to suggest the economic impacts of casinos.

Mobile gambling can take forms such as quiz games and lotteries. So far Kenyans are winning money, service providers are getting their share and the government is not to be left behind: the finance bill 2011 introduced a 20% withholding tax on winnings from lotteries, betting and gaming. With improved laws mobile gambling can effectively replace casino games.
New technologies and infrastructure means that betting does not have to be restricted to casinos. Gaming International, a Ugandan based sports betting company, took advantage of this opportunity when they launched their services in the country last year. Customers can place bets on major world sporting events.

It sounds like I’m encouraging people to gamble, or advocating for a vice. It’s perfectly legal to do so in the promotions we watch on TV. Remember, betting is at the core of each game, whether it’s poker, a favourite horse at the racetrack or sending messages to a four-digit number through your phone. So far majority of research on legal gambling has focussed on its social impacts rather than its potential to create employment and provide tax revenues. The research suggests that the social costs offset any economic impacts of gambling. the rising number of lotteries proves that this is an area that has yet to reach it’s maximum potential.