Is Online Gambling Illegal In South Africa
In reality, they tend to make the legal situation murkier – for example, under the headline “Legality of online casinos in South Africa”, playcasino.co.sa writes: “Gaming laws in South Africa have undergone a number of changes since South Africa’s Gambling Act of 1965 was enacted. The South African Bureau of Standards must then analyse the results and if found compliant they issue a letter of certification. Online gambling is still illegal within South Africa except for online betting via a licensed South African bookmaker. Both the operation and advertisement of online casinos within South Africa are illegal acts. Online Gambling in South Africa Should Be Legal, Says Analysts. Under their current gambling laws, online gambling in South Africa is illegal. Unlike some countries in Africa that choose to simply ignore this industry, lawmakers here have outright banned it. Illegal Online Casinos Still Serve South Africa South Africa features tough gambling laws on both its residents and illegal operators. However, South Africa has yet to take any action against the latter. Offshore casinos, poker sites, and even sportsbooks continue serving the Rainbow Nation.
11:0229 Jan
South African politician Geordin Hill Lewis recently presented revised version of an online gambling bill and was very optimistic, believing that it would be approved. However, despite his efforts, online gambling in South Africa won’t be legalized any time soon.
Even though the South African residents are gambling on unsafe, unregulated sites where they are not protected in any way, legalization of online gambling is on hold because the government ignored recommendations of the gambling review commission to legalize online gambling. The Department of Trade and Industry shared their thoughts claiming that no amount of the control could adequately curb the harm that online gambling may cause to the South African residents. Thus, it is the best for online gambling to remain illegal.
This announcement goes completely against the trend in South Africa. It is difficult to understand where it is coming from, but it is not through a democratic process. We were told that our report and its recommendations were adopted.
Stephen Louw, lecturer at Wits University, www.iol.co.za;Stephen Louw was certainly shocked by the department’s statement claiming that it is impossible to ban online gambling especially when it was on the rise in South Africa with all the technology developments and internet access. Impossible or not, South African residents should not expect legalization anytime soon.
Is online gambling legalization on hold because government concerns about fueling the gambling addiction or because of the feeling that they won’t be able to control the activity?
The policy is that online gambling is banned in the country. Maybe in the future it might be allowed as parliamentary processes are still under way. Until something is legislated by law in Parliament it remains illegal. Zodwa Ntuli, the department’s deputy director-general. www.iol.co.zaIs Online Gambling Illegal In South Africa Compared
;Zodwa said that it is not true that the government ignored recommendations of the commission because all recommendations were considered but, unfortunately, the government has no adequate resources to monitor and control the activity.
National Gambling Act of 1996 that distributed 40 gambling licenses across the country legalized casinos, a national lottery and other forms of gaming under the control of the National Gambling Board. Online gambling in the form of casino games, poker and other games of chance is still illegal and it is unknown how long the legalization of online gambling will be on hold.
In the meantime, South Africa residents are still gambling on unregulated sites instead of producing annual gambling revenue for their own country.
Did you like this article?
+0Ines SlatinacArticles 228
Joined PokerTube December 2014
