70 gambling M-pesa pay bills suspended

70 m-pesa pay bills that have been used for gambling have been suspended by The Betting Control and Licensing Board. This is for the unlicensed gaming activities run through broadcast channels. The board tabled the list with the National Assembly’s ICT committee who they directed to prove that the unlicensed gaming activities that are being run on radio and TV stations using these numbers issued by telecommunications companies were deactivated.

BCLB chief executive Peter Mbugi said''“The board directed Safaricom PLC to suspend the…pay bill numbers on diverse dates between December 2020 and August 2021.”

The chief executive told the ICT team that the board in collaboration with the CA is reviewing the gaming advertisement guidelines and content to address emerging threats. The BCLB and the CA's acting director-general Mercy Wanjau appeared before the committee to explain the reasons behind the rampant betting and gambling in the broadcast media and its effects on the public.

She expressed that MPs were told that broadcasters are responsible for advertising material transmitted by their stations and must therefore these broadcasters must ensure that all advertisements are legal, honest, decent, truthful, and conform to the rules of fair competition. The ICT committee trying to introduce a raft of amendments to the existing gaming and betting law to arrest the runaway emergence of betting and gaming propagated by the broadcast media across the country.