Is Online Gambling Illegal In South Africa
The legality of online gambling has been the subject of discussion in South Africa for many years. It has also been equally a subject of contention in the legal circles, with some parties advocating for the softening of the laws, whilst some remain adamant they should remain the same. Whilst gambling in all forms was liberated in 1996, there were amendments in 2004 that changed the landscape of online casino gambling. We seek to answer common questions from the punter’s perspective on the legality of online gambling in South Africa.
- Is Online Gambling Illegal In South Africa Right Now
- Is Online Gambling Illegal In South Africa Now
- Is Online Gambling Illegal In South Africa Compared
- Is Online Gambling Illegal In South Africa News24
“To eliminate any uncertainty in this regard, the NGB wishes to make it emphatically clear that the answer to whether online or interactive gambling is legal in South Africa, is a simple and unequivocal NO with the exception of online sports betting,” the NGC said in a media statement. The existing gambling laws in South Africa allow for online sports betting, horse racing, lotteries and games. However, most online casino games are deemed illegal, and for fans of casinos it would be best to visit the traditional brick and wall casino.
Legal Gambling South Africa
The National Gambling Board (NRB) is responsible for overseeing and regulating all the gambling activities in South Africa. The National Gambling Act 7 of 2004 prevents the use of online casino gambling in South Africa, and this has been in effect ever since despite failed attempts to amend the legislation in 2008 to legalise online gambling activities. A further ruling by the Northern Gauteng High court deemed online casino gambling illegal in 2010 for both local and offshore casino providers. But what does it mean to online sports betting, lotteries, horse racing, games and casino?
Is online gambling legal in South Africa?
- The illegality of online gambling in South Africa has been reinforced by the South African National Gambling Board. In a statement to help clarify the subject, the board noted that the status of online gambling remained a source of debate.
- South African Online Casinos. Although the government outrightly considers online casinos illegal, its laws target online casinos and banks. In the 2010 Act that banned both domestic and foreign online casinos. The government set a fine of R 10 million to casinos that provided their services to South Africans.
The simple answer is yes, Sports Betting and certain casino style games have been licensed by their respective boards and are legal. If you’d like to know if the betting site you are using is legal in South Africa then have a look at where they are licensed. If they are licensed by one of the provinces in South Africa then it’s fully legal to bet or gamble on that site.
Online Sports Betting and Horse Racing
Sports betting and horse racing fans can surely smile on this one. The good news is online sports betting and horse racing is indeed allowed and very legal in South Africa. This service is provided by most popular bookies such as Hollywoodbets, Sportingbet, Betway and many others. These sports bookies are registered with the NRB, and one needs to check the legal status of the bookie as this provides a basis for the protection of the player.
Online Lotteries and games
This is another segment that is allowed by the Lotteries Act of 1997 in South Africa and is pretty popular with a lot of punters. These include the various types of local lotteries such as those provided by The National Lottery. Again, the player needs to check the registration status of the Lottery and Game provider for their protection. Playing on international lotteries is considered illegal in South Africa. However, some providers go about this by providing fixed odds betting based on the results of international lotteries as in the case of Lottostar. So indeed, one can realize profits from international lotteries through these methods.
Online Casinos
The current gambling laws, although under contention, do not allow for online casino gambling in South Africa, both from local and international bookies. There is a potential for huge fines on bookies if found guilty of illegally providing such services. However, despite this, some international online casinos provide access to users based in South Africa with currencies being denominated in ZAR in some cases. Some bookmakers also provide the option of placing bets on games that are based on casinos which then become legal. The current legal games are live roulette and Betgames. Which covers different games like Dice, Poker and more. Read more about legal online casino games in South Africa.
Conclusion
The existing gambling laws in South Africa allow for online sports betting, horse racing, lotteries and games. However, most online casino games are deemed illegal, and for fans of casinos it would be best to visit the traditional brick and wall casino. Despite such regulations, there are some international casinos which offer online casino gambling in South Africa. One will hope such laws will be revised in the near future. If you’d like to view all the different legal betting sites in South Africa then we recommend having a browse through this list of betting sites in South Africa. All the bookmakers mentioned on the list are legal and licensed to operate.
If you’d like to know more about Sports Betting or need help with your betting account then head over to the Betting Guide homepage. We hope you found our is online gambling legal in South Africa article useful, if you have any questions leave them in the comments below.
South Africa holds a unique position within international gambling law, becoming among the very first to address the issue in codified form: The colonial system put in place by its Dutch overseers was responsible for the drafting of laws regulating gambling in 1673. Since that time nearly 350 years ago, the control of illegal gaming in South Africa has proven to be a true struggle. As was their wont in all corners of the globe, South Africa’s colonial ruling elite began horse breeding in the mid-17th century; thoroughbred horse-breeding would begin only in the late 18th century. Events of competitive horse racing began afterward, with the country’s first officially recognized race at Cape Town’s Green Point Common in 1797.
For this inaugural race, gambling was still disallowed under the law of 1673, but it is widely assumed that a fair amount of illegal betting on the race’s outcome was going down.And like in many other colonized lands, gambling at horse tracks in South Africa was the first such gaming to be legalized. In the case of South African law, betting on horse racing was limited as to the amount of money that could be legally wagered on a given event. This legal move in the 19th century was no doubt tied in with the burgeoning local horse-breeding industry.
What is the history of gambling laws in South Africa?
The gold and diamond rushes of the mid- to late-1880s in the Witwatersrand region is often cited as an example of illegal gambling gone wild, with shysters more than willing to help would-be prospectors part with their money in often crooked games – a familiar happenstance to anyone the least bit knowledgeable of the California and Alaska gold rushes.
Despite the strict Gambling Act of 1965, the 70s saw a mini boom of casino-style gambling in South Africa, as certain loopholes were exploited in various areas to allow hotels the right to host traditional-style casinos; the semi-autonomous regions of Bophuthatswana, Ciskei, Transkei and Venda were particularly notable in this regard.
With this model set, however, fly-by-night operations – again running on the “fool and his money” principle – opened and closed throughout the decade and throughout the 1980s as well. At the peak of such gambling in South Africa, estimates placed the number of illegal outlets at 2,000 running at any one time, with regions such as Bophuthatswana, Ciskei and Venda essentially allowing these operations to offer gaming within the “gray economy.”
What happened when change came to South Africa?
When tremendous political change came to South Africa in the 1990s and ages-old Apartheid laws were stricken from the books, gambling law was among those readily addressed by a reformed, more democratic government. The 1990s saw laws passed allowing for state licensure of gambling operations, ultimately paving the way for the National Gambling Act of 1996. At this time, the National Gaming Board was created and was soon followed by the issuance of some 40 gambling licenses, allowing said licenses’ owners to establish gaming houses in various locations throughout South Africa.
Is online gambling legal in South Africa?
The reformation of gambling law in South Africa which modernized the “bricks-and-mortar” setting of the industry continued in somewhat confusing fashion for the online milieu into the 2000s and beyond.
Another version of the National Gambling Act was put into place in 2004, and this was chased by the National Gambling Amendment in ’08. Both laws sought to regulate gaming at online casinos in South Africa, yet as of this writing the answer to the question “Is online gambling legal in South Africa” remains “yes and no.” The national statutes of the 2000s, approximating those of Australia and Canada, leave the question to the states. Today, technically legal online casino operations overseen by local government bodies operate in every South African state, but an estimated 2,000 such websites may be easily accessed by any resident in the country with basically no fear of recrimination.
By 2011, calls from parliamentarians for greater loosening of restrictions on online gambling (and thus greater tax revenue) have been strident and frequent, but five years later the South African national government prefers to stick with the rather regressive law put into place in 2012. This law passes taxation on to the player, i.e. all winnings from games of chance including in the national lottery above SAR 25,000 (approximately $4,000) are taxed as income at a rate of 15%.
Of course, this law seems rather ineffectual as regards online gambling. In similar fashion to most other countries which attempt to regulate their citizens’ online gambling, wagering money at offshore-based internet casinos is considered illegal and is actively dissuaded. However, as of this writing, not a single player wagering at so-called illegal offshore online casino operations has been arrested in South Africa. Therefore, not only has South African law been shown to be toothless on the ground level, the national government also misses out on that 15% tax revenue; in this respect, South African gambling law differs very little for that of most European nations.
We can see the realities of standing South African gambling law in light of the Piggs Peak Casino case of the early 2010s…
Is Online Gambling Illegal In South Africa Right Now
Whatever happened to Piggs Peak online casino?
Is Online Gambling Illegal In South Africa Now
In 2011, the Microgaming-powered/South Africa-based Piggs Peak Casino lost a court case and its subsequent appeal in which the casino’s legal team argued that, since Piggs Peak’s base of operations was located in the semi-autonomous region of Swaziland, its marketing to and acceptance of South African players should be allowed.
Is Online Gambling Illegal In South Africa Compared
The results from the decision were multi-faceted. Immediately, the above-mentioned laws passed in 2011 and ’12 made certain to address certain local legal issues presented by the Piggs Peak operation. Secondly, the government started various awareness campaigns online to warn citizens against playing at foreign-based internet casinos.
Is Online Gambling Illegal In South Africa News24
And finally, thanks to Microgaming’s status as a publicly traded company and their hands-on attitude regarding online casinos licensed with its software, Piggs Peak immediately ceased appealing to South African customers; naturally, the loss of its primary customer base caused the outlet to cease operations four months after the court decision.