Mobile payments are highly convenient, making them the preferred avenue for addictive habits such as gambling. A majority or 62 percent of Kenyans own mobile phones—indicating massive opportunities. Mobile gambling is the next step in the evolution of digital gambling technologies. Multiple providers have developed interfaces for mobile use, including iPhone gambling apps.

If you want to know more about how to get started with a quality mobile gambling app and what’s available for real money gambling via mobile in general, then keep reading through this page. If you just want to get going with using the best gambling apps available right now, click on one of our recommendations below.

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The mobile sector of the online gambling world has grown over time to the point that it has overtaken computer play as the most popular way to gamble. This mirrors a similar growth of mobile usage in other areas, which has primarily come thanks to the proliferation of mobile-friendly content.

Now people from all over the world use mobile gambling sites and real money gambling apps for betting and gaming on the go.

The list above or below of the best sites with mobile gambling apps is kept regularly updated by our online betting and gaming experts. Our team regularly bet on sports and play casino games from their mobile devices, so they know exactly how to identify the best real money gambling apps to use.

These mobile gambling apps have been extensively vetted by our team to ensure that they are safe to use for all customers that sign up. Each one offers a unique gambling experience on your mobile device and we truly believe that you won’t be disappointed in any one of these that you choose to play at.

If you’re wondering about our vetting process, our rankings are based on a variety of factors, which is the next thing we address on this page.

• Safety and security – Vital for real money gambling apps
• Compatibility – Apps should work on multiple mobile devices
• Ease of use – Online apps should be easy to use
• Banking – Gambling apps need different options for depositing and withdrawing
• Bonuses and promotions – The best apps are generous to new and existing customers
• Payout speed – Withdrawals from gambling apps should be as quick as possible

The above list is not exhaustive by any means. It shows the most important criteria, but there are many more factors that need to be assessed when ranking gambling apps. Rest assured that we are extremely thorough in our evaluations, and only the very best apps make it onto our list.

In addition to ranking the best real money gambling apps overall, we’ve also ranked the top apps in a variety of different categories. Let’s look at those before moving on.

In what follows, we’re going to break down everything you might want to know about playing on mobile online gambling apps. We’ll walk you through how to get started, the available types of mobile gambling apps, compatibility issues, safety and security, and more.

Because there are so many different popular devices and mobile operating systems, there are a variety of ways to get started playing via mobile, and they largely depend on what type of smartphone or tablet you’re using.

Each individual type of device or OS can have multiple ways to get started gambling, and the method you use can be dependent on the site itself. We’re going to walk you through each of the major possibilities so that you know what’s available when you start gambling with mobile apps.

Most of the major operating systems like iOS and Android have some variation of an app store (or multiple app stores) where you can download various applications directly to your phone from an organized interface.

If you’re looking to play with a specific casino or betting site, they will often give you a link that will direct you straight to the download page from your respective app store. Alternatively, you can look for that gambling site’s name specifically using your app store’s search function.

Mobile Phone Betting Apps

It’s worth noting that searching for something very general like “mobile slots” in an app store is not ideal because you can turn up a lot of low-quality results, even if they’re free apps, which we’ll cover more below.

Aside from that, these app store download options make it easy for you to add everything to your phone or tablet that you need to play all from one place, and that makes them perfect even for players who may not be confident dealing with technology.

One method that was made popular before most devices had web browsers was to simply allow you to put in your phone number so that you could receive an SMS/text message with a download link for the gambling app in question. Even though most browsers have the ability to open download links directly these days, some sites will still use this type of option.

It’s another good choice if you aren’t confident with technology or if you just like convenience since it’s hard to get lost or confused with this straightforward process.

• Put in your phone number and request a download link
• The link will come to your phone via an SMS/text message
• Tap on the link to open it
• Confirm that you want to download the app

It will be downloaded and installed on your device automatically. All you have to do then is open the online gambling app and get started.

In comparison to using an app store, we actually prefer the SMS/text link option because it makes it harder to get sidetracked or accidentally download the wrong thing.

Sometimes you will have the option to use a QR code to open a download link for the app software. This is a bit more of an advanced approach, and it takes about the same amount of time as either of the above options, so there’s not really any significant advantage.

If you see something that looks like a square barcode with a bunch of tiny black and white squares on it, then that’s probably a QR code. You scan it with a special mode on your phone, and it acts like a link that can open up a website or download for a mobile gambling site.

In essence, it’s a fancy version of sending you a link to get the app. There’s no major advantage to using a QR code to download a mobile gambling app, so if you’re not comfortable with it, then just use either of the above methods if they’re offered.

Once you’ve used one of the above three methods to download the betting or gaming app to your smartphone or tablet, all you need to do is create an account to start gambling.

We have a number of tips down below to help keep yourself and your funds safe and secure when you’re creating this gambling account, but it’s a pretty straightforward process otherwise, and it’s just like creating an account at any other website.

With that having been said, it’s critical that you include your real information like your name, address, and so on.

This is not a time to put in fake information for the sake of privacy. The sites are required to use the information you put in to verify your identity to satisfy the requirements of their gambling license, and this helps to avoid situations of fraud, money laundering, and other issues.

Types of Online Gambling Apps

There is a lot to choose from when it comes to picking out the best gambling apps to play on, and there are even other apps that are used as tools or utilities to help you while you play.

It can feel like you’re being thrown into the deep end of a swimming pool when you try to navigate all of this for the first time, so we want to show you exactly what to expect from the different kinds of apps for mobile gambling.

If you were to search for a mobile online casino in an app store, you’d find a whole lot of play money-only options for just about every type of game or way to gamble that you can think of. However, there are some real disadvantages to downloading these gambling apps.

• You never have the option to play for real money on the same games
• The games are typically low quality and are made just well enough to pass the app store’s software standards
• The companies that run these games often focus primarily on marketing, so you’ll have to deal with a lot of ads or having your information used to market to you

Some play money apps are free, while others require you to pay for them. If you’re wondering what’s in it for the developers with the free options, the free apps almost always generate funds by forcing you to view advertisements on a regular basis before you can enjoy your play money mobile games.

To avoid these disadvantages, we strongly suggest sticking with the real money gambling app options we gave on our list of recommended sites at the top.

Many have play money options or similar features where you can enjoy the action with play chips until you’re ready to get in the mix for real funds.

As we mentioned above, the best real money mobile gambling apps will have free play options where you can enjoy the games and betting without having to actually wager money. Instead, they’ll keep a score or balance of virtual chips to let you keep up with how you’re doing.

However, you can have opportunities to win real money prizes without making monetary wagers. No-deposit bonus opportunities are one way to do this with sports betting apps and casino apps. You can also play in online poker freeroll tournaments, which have no entry fee but allow you to win real money payouts if you place high enough.

For most players most of the time, this is a lot more fun than straightforward play money games since you have an actual chance to win something of value without having to risk your own funds.

Additionally, there are a variety of mobile apps that act as tools or utilities to assist you while gambling. What’s available depends on how you’re gambling, but you can check out resources like the following.

• Sports betting tips
• Online poker starting hand charts
• Blackjack strategy tables
• Video poker hand calculators

These aren’t for everyone, and you don’t have to use them, but they’re worth mentioning for players who enjoy focusing on strategy when wagering.

One potential problem that mobile gamblers can run into is the fact that not all software or apps are compatible with all mobile devices. This means that you can find yourself in a situation where you want to play with a site that doesn’t have a viable mobile software option that works for your smartphone or tablet.

In what follows, we’re going to break down how compatibility issues can happen, how they can be avoided, and why our recommended online gambling apps keep you from having to worry about this in virtually all cases.

Some online gambling apps have been designed to work with one specific mobile operating system only, and that will almost always be either iOS or Android since those are the two most popular operating systems. These are called native OS apps, and while this approach is popular for a lot of other types of mobile software, it’s actually the least popular option in the online gambling world.

Virtually all of our top recommended suggestions are based around mobile web options instead. This is because all operating systems for mobile have web browser apps, and that helps ensure that players from all types of devices and operating systems are able to get in on the action.

In essence, since the sites become full screen anyway, it gives you an experience that’s just as good while keeping the compatibility issue from holding you back.

Adobe Flash was the platform used for most of the early mobile gambling options, but it fell to the side with HTML5 taking its place. HTML5 is better in virtually every aspect of the experience compared to Flash, particularly regarding giving players a better overall performance on the same hardware.

However, not all types of gambling will use HTML5 to create graphical displays and so on like what you see in online slots. Instead, you’ll often see regular responsive web pages used with mobile sports betting apps because it makes it easier for the operator to keep the betting odds fresh and updated regularly.

HTML5 is great because it offers a super-strong performance while being compatible with nearly every modern mobile device. However, we don’t want you to think that there’s something wrong with a site if HTML5 is not used, particularly if you’re betting on sports via mobile.

Tablets, Smartphones, and Screen Sizes

One of the things we check for when making our recommendations is that they work on all different types of screens, including large tablets, mid-sized tablets, and a variety of smartphone screen sizes.

With HTML5, screen size is largely irrelevant because the scaling is great and everything is designed to be high-quality and easy to view regardless of whether its scaled to a small or large size.

It’s a bit different with apps, though. They don’t always scale the same way, and even the top real money gambling apps are sometimes optimized for tablets or smartphones but not both.

We’ve done the research on all of our recommended mobile gambling apps so that you don’t have to, and you can check out which screen sizes are available.

However, there is a caveat to this. Smartwatches are not compatible with very many mobile online gambling apps at all. The screens are simply too small to allow the kind of intricate interaction that most types of real money gambling require.

Safety and Security With Real Money Online Gambling Apps

A significant number of players hesitate to gamble via mobile because they aren’t sure about the potential security risks. If you check out the sites that we have recommended, you can see from our reviews that we have checked them out to make sure that their mobile gambling software is fully secured and safe to play with.

With that said, there are still a few security things that are beyond the reach of the mobile apps themselves, so we recommend you follow the steps below to keep your account information and financial details safe.

For the sake of convenience, many mobile gambling applications will allow you to save your username and/or password for future sessions. We highly recommend against this.

If your phone or tablet is lost or stolen, you’ll have enough problems on your hands without having to worry about someone logging into your real money gambling app and cleaning out your balance. If you keep things set up to automatically log in, then they can do this in just a few taps on your screen.

This is why it’s so critical to not use the automatic log-in features that some software providers put into their apps.

Again, if your phone is lost or stolen, it gives a person access to all of your email accounts and other types of accounts that are logged in on your device. If the email you used for your mobile gambling account is automatically logged in on your smartphone or tablet, then it’s really easy for someone to reset your password to get into your account.

Likewise, they can use similar information from other accounts that you’re logged into to gain information to log in and cause havoc on your gambling accounts.

A solution to this is fairly straightforward: Use a new email address for your mobile gambling account, do not use it for anything else, and do not have it automatically logged in on your phone. While you’re at it, use a username and password unique to that site so that if someone figures out your username and/or password, that will not give them access to everything else.

Frequently Asked Questions About Mobile Gambling Apps

We know that players will have questions about gambling via mobile, especially if it’s their first time. Here, we have compiled some of the most asked questions so that you can get most of your answers first and know exactly what you’re looking at.

This depends on the type of gambling you’re doing and what kind of graphics, video, and sound have to be loaded. Here are a few examples.

• Mobile Slots – Expect these to use a lot of data because of the high level of graphics, sounds, and sometimes video clips
• Mobile Poker – This doesn’t use much data at all because the graphics are downloaded once and saved on your phone
• Mobile Sports Betting – Again, not much data is used here because almost all of the information transferred is in text just like most of what you see on regular websites

For most sites most of the time, including virtually all of our suggested mobile gambling apps, you’ll have no problem using the same account to play on both the mobile and desktop platforms.

This includes sharing an account balance, playing many of the same games, and taking advantage of several of the same promotions. It’s essentially the same account, but you have multiple ways to play from it.

This will depend on where you’re playing, but a large percentage of sites will have mobile casino bonuses, mobile poker bonuses, and special mobile sports betting promotions. You will also be able to take advantage of the regular desktop bonuses and special offers, which means tons of ways to get value while gambling on the go.

If you stick to legitimate gambling apps with a quality license and a solid reputation, the answer is yes. They use proper SSL technologies and trusted payment providers to protect their customers. All of our recommended apps do it.

Yes, you can actually have more of them. A lot of gambling companies offer not only their standard options for mobile users, but some exclusive promotions that are only available on the go.

Most of the time, the quality is identical. It can be slightly better on desktop on rare occasions, but that’s not the case with most gambling apps.

The mobile gambling apps are no different than betting, playing casino games or poker on the internet. In other words, there are off-shore gambling platforms that accept US customers and it’s technically not illegal to use them. To learn more about this topic, feel free to visit our US gambling laws and regulations page.

It depends on the particular app you want to use. Many gambling sites nowadays are mobile-responsive, so they work on almost every mainstream device such as iPhone, iPad, Android, Windows Phone, and even BlackBerry.

As for the native apps, they are usually available on iOS and Android only.

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If you want to play with virtual cash, you can usually enjoy Texas Hold’em Poker, slots, and classic card and table games like blackjack and roulette.

The real money casinos and poker rooms usually support even more options like video poker, scratch cards, Omaha, and others. And of course, you can also bet on sports.

With most bookmakers, you only need one account to bet on mobile and on desktop. Simply use the same credentials to log into your account.

You can use the same options that are usually available on desktop, such as credit and debit cards, e-wallets, crypto, and more. Some of the best gambling apps have even implemented pay-by-phone services. If you decide to use pay-by-phone, your money will be added to your phone bill at the end of the month.

Most gambling apps are secured well, so you should have no issues betting via Wi-Fi. However, we recommend you avoid unknown networks and public options that require no password.

We’ve researched and reviewed all of the mobile gambling apps from all of the biggest names out there, and we’ve put this information together in our list of recommendations to save you the trouble. While there’s a lot to learn about gambling with apps if you’re just getting started, the software is set up to make the learning curve as smooth and accessible as possible.

If you’re ready to get started, pick out a gambling site from our list, and follow our instructions for how to sign up and start playing.

Mobile Phone Wikipedia

Alternatively, you can read the following reviews for more information on some our top-ranked gambling apps.

Following our joint report with Ipsos, on the reaction to the crackdown on gambling in Kenya and the suspension of several gambling firms’ licenses, GeoPoll is pleased to release additional data on the prevalence of betting in Kenya, popular types of betting, and the impact that smartphone ownership has had on gambling. This study was conducted by SMS with a sample size of 600 immediately prior to the July 1 regulations taking effect. To purchase GeoPoll’s full reports on gambling in Kenya or request a custom report on certain aspects of gambling in Kenya or other countries please contact us.

Prevalence of Gambling in Kenya

GeoPoll’s study found that out of those age 18+ in Kenya, 57% have participated in gambling in the past, including 69% of males and 44% of females. Of those who gamble, 47% are light gamblers who place bets once a month or less, and only 10% of gamblers place bets more than once a day. The study finds that gambling is most popular among males aged 25-34, of whom 77% have gambled in the past, with 58% of this group gambling at least once a week. Females age 35+ are the least likely participants in gambling; Only 46% of this population have ever gambled.

Mobile Phone Casino Deposits

Of those who have not gambled in the past, 39% report that they are not interested, and 27% state a lack of money prevents them from gambling. Those aged 25-34 who do not participate in gambling are most likely to report that this is because of either a lack of money or the fear of losing money – 48% of these participants cited a money-based reason for not gambling, compared to 36% of those aged 35+ and 31% of those aged 18-24, suggesting that this group is interested in gambling but feels a responsibility to not spend their money on gambling.

Mobile Phones and Betting in Kenya

Mobile Phone Betting

GeoPoll also confirmed that mobile phones have been at the forefront of the gambling industry in Kenya. There are stark differences in gambling prevalence among smartphone owners vs non-smartphone owners, with just 40% of those owning basic phones gambling, compared to 64% of smartphone owners. Females who own a basic mobile phone are the least likely to have gambled, with only 27% of this group placing bets or gambling.

Mobile Phone Gambling

In addition, among those who have gambled, mobile applications are by far the most popular medium for doing so; 88% of gamblers have used their mobile device to place bets, and 55% of those are gambling on their phone once a week or more. This makes mobile-based gambling both the most popular and the most frequently used method of gambling, demonstrating how the ease of access to mobile gambling has changed the betting industry dramatically.

Casinos are less popular, with only 36% of gamblers reporting that they place bets in casinos, and a third of those who go to casinos stating that they do so once a month or less. Cyber cafes and betting shops are also less frequently used for betting than mobile, with only 28% and 33% of the gambling population respectively noting that they place bets through these shops.

Bingo ball blower machine. Gamblers in Kenya are most likely to bet by themselves, with 40% noting that they place bets alone most often, however 38% bet with friends, demonstrating that even with the popularity of mobile apps betting can be a social sport.

Mobile Phone Gambling App

Football Betting Reigns Supreme

In terms of what people in Kenya are betting on, football is the most popular type of betting – 83% report that they bet on football most often, followed by lotteries which 11% report is their most common form of betting. Lotteries are most popular with the older age group, 22% of which say lotteries are their preferred type of gambling, and females are also more likely to bet through lotteries than males. The popularity of football betting has also been found in previous GeoPoll reports on the World Cup, during which 77% of those in Kenya said they had placed bets, and AFCON, which 83% of Kenyan gamblers planned to place bets on.

Demonstrating the loyalty gamblers have to their preferred betting type, we find that 37% report they do not have a secondary preferred betting type, and 26% say sports other than football are their second most frequent source of bets.

Mobile Phone Price

Data on Gambling in Kenya

GeoPoll has conducted numerous studies on gambling in Kenya dating from 2017 through to the July 2019 suspensions. To purchase our gambling data or request a custom report on the state of gambling in Kenya, contact us today.