South Africa gets tough on online gambling

The South African government has held discussions with financial institutions as it looks to introduce payment processing blocking and crackdown on online gambling.

The country’s Minister for Trade and Industry Rob Davies affirmed that online gambling is currently illegal in South Africa and in a statement this week said operators in breach of the rules would be subject to the “might of the law”.

“Anyone operating illegally under the presumption that eventually they will be legalised ought to understand that they will not get a licence for this,” Davies said.

“South Africans participating on online gambling have no defence or recourse if they get ripped-off.”

Davies’ statement comes after a bill aimed at regulating South Africa’s remote gambling market was tabled in the country’s parliament last month by Geordin Hill-Lewis of the country’s opposition Democratic Alliance party.

Committee member of the ruling African National Congress party, Priscilla Tozama Mantashe, backed Davies’ statement and questioned the motives of attempts to legalise online gambling.

“When someone would support online gambling you wonder whose interest is the person promoting,” Mantashe said.

“A person who is serving the poor people will not support online [as] the majority of our people especially the poor do not understand online gambling,” she added.

The comments were made after a “forensic” investigation into the activities of the National Gambling Board (NGB) after its members were suspended last year following allegations of financial irregularities and improper spending.