BCLB warns gaming operators over use of speed dials
Last month, the High Court directed BCLB to ensure gaming operators cease using speed dials feature on internet browsers.
What you need to know:
- Last month, the High Court directed BCLB to ensure gaming operators cease using speed dials feature on internet browsers.
- Cofek argued that the speed dial feature on various browsers pose a great risk to consumers, especially minors.
The Betting Control and Licensing Board (BCLB) has written to gaming operators directing them to cease using speed dials feature on browsers to advertise online.
In a letter dated February 16, 2024, the betting regulator directing the gaming operators to cease immediately in line with a High Court order issued last month.
“We make reference to a court order issued by the High Court at Nairobi in the above-stated matter on January 16, 2024. This is therefore to direct you to cease with immediate effect, the use of the ‘speed dial’ feature on all internet browsers,” the board said in the letter.
The regulator further warned that the failure to comply with the order would lead to the commencement of the necessary process as stipulated in the Betting Lotteries and Gaming Act.
Last month, High Court judge Lawrence Mugambi directed BCLB to ensure gaming operators cease using speed dials feature on internet browsers.
The case was filed by Consumers Federation of Kenya (Cofek) and is due for hearing on May 9.
A browser speed dial is a visual set of entries compiled from the list of a user’s most visited pages on a given browser. The speed dial entries appear as thumbnails that once clicked link to the pages.
Cofek had argued that gaming operators prominently use the feature without due regard to the age, vulnerability and other diversities of the internet users.
The body had sued BCLB, Communications Authority of Kenya (CA), CS Ministry of ICT, Office and the Data Protection Commissioner and Competition Authority of Kenya (CAK), among others over the predatory speed dials.
The lobby argued that the speed dial feature on various browsers are being used to advertise betting, lottery and gaming activities and dissemination of related information, posing a great risk to consumers, especially minors.
The organisation states in the petition that the respondents are individually and collectively mandated to regulate the internet, a role they have either neglected or ignored allowing unlimited, invasive and uncensored predatory advertisement.
“That there has been unprecedented growth of the gambling sector, which has attracted private investment channeled towards the setting up of companies, as evidence by the issuance of numerous licenses by the BCLB,” the lobby said in the petition.
It is the lobby’s argument that the speed dial feature, which is unregulated poses a great risk to those who visit the browsers including children who have with the rise of technology.
