The High Court has directed the Betting Control and Licensing Board (BCLB) to ensure gaming operators cease using speed dials feature on browsers to advertise online.

In a consent adopted by High Court judge Lawrence Mugambi, parties agreed that gaming operators should stop using the feature, even as the main petition filed by Consumers Federation of Kenya (Cofek) is pending determination.

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.

The regulator had last year warned gaming firms to stop using the feature stating that the betting services are prominently featured without due regard to the age, vulnerability and other diversities of the internet users.

“An order is hereby issued to BCLB directing all gaming operators to cease using speed dials,” Justice Mugambi said. The case will be heard on May 9 to proceed with the determination of other issues not addressed in the consent.

Cofek 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 is 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 evidenced 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.

Cofek Secretary General Stephen Mutoro said in an affidavit that the BCLB Board and other respondents have a moral and legal duty towards the promotion of access to information that is accurate, unadulterated and free of manipulation.