How to read the GRA list of licensed operators

The regulator's list is a table of eight columns: a row number, the company, the trading name, three licence numbers (BK for bookmaker, PG for public gaming, PL for public lottery), a status and a domain. For casino gaming, read the PG column. "Nil" means nothing is recorded in that cell.

By Online Casino Kenya Editorial (prepared with AI tools under our editorial policy) · Last updated 2026-10-04

Where the list is and what it is called

The list sits on the website of the Gambling Regulatory Authority of Kenya (GRA) at the address gra.go.ke/licensed-operators/. Its headings read "Licensed gaming companies" and "For the trading period 2025/26", and the table is titled "Gaming operations licensed companies for 2025/2026 financial year".

It is a single web table, not a searchable database. This site keeps a filtered copy of it in the table of casino brands on the GRA list, limited to lines with a public gaming licence and a domain. The explanations below apply to both.

The eight columns, one by one

Reading the licence columns

A licence number in the list is a seven-digit figure with leading zeros. Each kind of licence has its own number, so a company with a bookmaker licence and a public gaming licence shows two different numbers on one line.

For a casino question the PG column decides. A line with a number under BK and "Nil" under PG records a bookmaker, not a casino licence holder, whatever games its website may show. The background to the term is in the short entry on the meaning of a public gaming licence.

The column headings come from the older vocabulary of the regulator. The Gambling Control Act, 2025 uses different words: section 28(2) lists the licences the Authority issues, and section 67(1) names an online bookmakers licence, an online lottery licence and an online casino licence. The 2025/26 list has no column with those three names.

Reading the company and trading name

The licence belongs to the company. The Act defines a licence as assigned to a specific person and not re-assignable to another person (s.2), and regulation 28 of the Licensing Regulations, 2026 makes it an offence to transfer a licence to another person.

That is why the company name is the anchor. In the snapshot of 2026-10-04 two trading names each appear on lines belonging to different companies. In another line the trading name and the listed domain are quite different words. A brand name by itself is therefore a weak identifier.

Regulation 29 of the Licensing Regulations requires a licensee to trademark the name under which it conducts its gambling activity and to submit the certificate of registration to the Authority within thirty days of being licensed. Over time that should make trading names more stable than they are in the 2025/26 list.

Reading the status and the domain

The list shows two status values. The page does not explain them, so do not read more into "Renewal" than the word itself. In particular the status column has no value for "suspended" or "revoked".

The domain column is empty ("Nil") for many lines. In the snapshot, 33 of the 85 lines with a public gaming licence number listed no domain. The list does not say whether such a company operates only from premises, and this site does not guess.

Where a domain is listed, it is the only address the list ties to that licence. A site on a different address has not been matched, even if it uses the same brand. The full method is in the guide on how to check an online casino licence in Kenya.

Snapshot counts, for orientation

These figures were counted from the snapshot read on 2026-10-04. They describe the list, not the market, and they will change when the regulator updates the page.

The row numbers on the regulator's page run to 188, with one number skipped, which is why the count of lines is 187.

What the list does not record

Section 39(1) of the Act says the Authority shall keep a register of licences and record, for every licence, the name, identity and registration number of the licensee, the gambling activity, the county or counties, the date of expiry, particulars of any revocation or suspension and particulars of any amendment. The published list shows only part of this.

• No expiry date. You cannot tell from the list when a licence ends.
• No suspension or revocation. A line could stay on the page after the licence behind it has been suspended.
• No games. The list does not say whether a public gaming licence holder offers slots, tables or anything online.
• No physical address. The page gives no office address for any company.

Under section 39(2) the register kept by the Authority is open to the public at reasonable times and upon payment of the prescribed fee. For anything the web page leaves out, that register is the source.

Oddities on the page worth knowing

The page still carries traces of the regulator's past. Its introductory sentence refers to licensed companies "as of July 1, 2023", although the heading says 2025/26. The contact block gives email addresses on the bclb.go.ke domain, and the footer still reads "BCLB". BCLB is the Betting Control and Licensing Board, whose rights, duties and staff passed to the Authority under section 121 of the Act.

None of this makes the list unofficial. It does mean you should read the heading and the "last modified" date, not the introductory text, to know which period a line belongs to. The regulator's page was last modified on 2026-03-19.

The licences in the list were issued for a trading period that began before the 2026 Regulations existed. Section 122 of the Act and regulation 30 of the Licensing Regulations deal with the changeover, and the duties that apply after it are summarised in what Kenyan law requires of an online casino.