Help, limits and self-exclusion

Start here

The Gambling Regulatory Authority's website shows a toll-free assistance line: 0800-723-770. It is free to call. If you are in immediate danger or thinking of harming yourself, call the emergency services or go to the nearest hospital first.

Signs that it has gone past a game

None of these makes anyone a bad person. They are the things that tend to show up before the money does.

• Playing to win back what was lost earlier the same day or week, and raising stakes to do it faster.
• Spending money that was meant for rent, school fees, food or a loan repayment, or borrowing to play.
• Hiding how much time or money has gone into it, or feeling relief when nobody asks.
• Finding that a live table runs in the background of most evenings, and that stopping feels harder than starting.
• Feeling low, restless or irritable when not playing, and better only when the next round starts.

If two or three of these are familiar, the steps below are worth taking today, before the next session, not after it.

What you can do today

Set limits inside the account

Every licensed operator must give players real-time tools: daily, weekly and monthly deposit limits; loss, session and expenditure limits; reality-check pop-ups that interrupt play; and a self-exclusion option of at least 24 hours linked to the national register (Gambling Control (Conduct of Gambling Operations) Regulations, 2026, L.N. 112 r.84(1)-(2)). These are in the account settings of the platform, not at the table. A deposit limit set today applies now; the Regulations prescribe no figures, so the amount is yours to choose and can be set at zero.

Self-exclude from the platform in real time

Online platforms must offer a real-time self-exclusion mechanism (r.67(3)). A self-excluded person may not place a bet, open a gambling account, receive promotions or claim gambling winnings for the period chosen (r.70(5)).

Self-exclude under the Act, for all gambling

A person who recognises that their gambling is harmful may voluntarily enter a self-exclusion agreement with a licensee that covers all gambling, including online (Gambling Control Act, 2025, s.115(1)). Separately, you may apply to the Authority on Form 1 in the First Schedule to the Conduct Regulations, stating the period and attaching a copy of your 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). The Authority's own self-exclusion page describes starting the process by visiting its offices in person or by e-mail.

Tell one person

Not the regulator, not an operator: one person you trust. Hidden gambling is the hardest kind to stop. A friend who knows can hold the phone during the evenings that are difficult.

What the operator must then do

• Remove you from its marketing databases within two days of the completed notification (s.115(4)(c)).
• Implement a written self-exclusion request within seven days; failing to do so is an offence carrying a fine of up to KES 1,000,000, imprisonment for up to one year, or both (s.115(5)).
• Deny all access while you are excluded, refund any deposit taken in breach within seven days, cancel winnings obtained in breach and report attempts to the Authority (L.N. 112 r.74(1)).

Money

A licensee may not advance credit to a player, allow a credit card to fund play or pay a player's third-party costs (s.72(7)), and may not provide credit or make offers designed to induce a person to gamble or to gamble more; breach carries a fine of up to KES 5,000,000, five years' imprisonment, or both (s.74(1)-(3)). If an operator has done any of these things to you, that is a complaint for the Authority, which receives and determines complaints from the public under s.10(m) of the Act.

For family and friends

You cannot self-exclude another adult; the agreement under s.115(1) is voluntary and the Form 1 application is personal. What you can do is call the toll-free line yourself for advice, sit with the person while they set limits or complete the form, and keep the conversation about the next week rather than the last year. The signs above are a way to start it without blame.

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 a prize (s.70(6)); the Conduct Regulations treat persons under eighteen as minors who must be kept out of gambling and gambling promotion (L.N. 112 r.92(1)(c)); and betting with a child or taking bets through a child is an offence (s.109). If a child in your household has an account, the operator has broken the law, and the Authority is the place to report it.

About this page

This page is information, not treatment. It is reviewed against the Act, the Regulations and the regulator's website, and the date at the top changes whenever anything on it changes. The site that publishes it earns nothing from gambling and links to no operator; see how this site makes money.