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{
    "id": 747266,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/747266/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 232,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. Ababu",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 108,
        "legal_name": "Ababu Tawfiq Pius Namwamba",
        "slug": "ababu-namwamba"
    },
    "content": "Thank you, Hon. Chairlady. Just two quick ones. In January 2013, I had the privilege of moving in this House the Sports Bill when serving as the Minster responsible for Sports that provided the legal and statutory framework for sports betting. At the time when we enacted the Sports Act, we did not have a statutory framework for sports betting. I, therefore, want this House to know that sports betting is statutory and already provided for in the law. Secondly, as we grapple over the text and spirit of the Constitution, we went ahead to recognise betting, lotteries and even provided a framework of how the same can be managed by both the national Government and county governments. Therefore, this House must appreciate that we are discussing a matter which is already provided for both in statute law and the Constitution. I want to urge this House not to use a hammer or a mallet to treat a tumour which needs clinical surgery. You cannot use taxation as a form of regulation. This could be one of the fastest growing industries in the country today. It is also providing employment to hundreds and thousands of people and many of our teams are being sponsored by betting firms. The economic benefits of regulated statutory sports betting cannot be gainsaid. What this industry needs is an effective framework which can regulate and cure the ills and mischief which the Members have already noticed. That cannot be done by a taxation regime which would basically sound a death knell for this sector. To tax gross revenues at 50 per cent is to send all betting firms in this country to their grave. I want my colleagues to know if you are to kill SportPesa or any other betting firm in this country, you will not end betting, but you will only provide opportunity and avenue for foreign based betting companies to reap where these ones may be doing business for the benefit of this country. Today, you can log into Sky Sports web page or even while watching an English Premier League game, you can engage in betting online using your phone. If you kill local firms through this kind of taxation measure, you will be killing the goose that lays the golden egg while providing opportunity for foreign firms to do business here. I want to urge this House to be reasonable, magnanimous, objective and think in a manner which will enable the betting industry to grow while at the same time allow the National Treasury to collect revenue. I want to warn the National Treasury that no sensible farmer kills the goose which lays the golden egg."
}