South African Government Set To Amend Gambling Laws
By Brian Cullingworth, Last updated Jul 27, 2018
Changes will affect many aspects land gambling sector
The South African Ministry of Trade and Industry has announced that it is set to table amendments to the National Gambling Act which will impact many aspects of the land gambling sector.
InfoPowa readers will recall that online casino, bingo and poker gambling is largely prohibited in the country, with exceptions for horse racing, lotteries and limited sports betting.
Work on the National Gambling Amendment Bill has been ongoing over the past two years, and the current draft is designed to introduce stricter protocols and regulations.
Among the proposals are provisions transferring the regulation of all bets on the national lottery, foreign lottery, lottery results and sports pools to a National Lotteries Commission; bans on dog racing and gambling on dog racing; requirements relating to broad-based black economic empowerment, especially regarding the award of licences; and the possibility of tougher gambling advertising and promotion regulations.
The amendments also specifically prohibit financial and processing companies from processing any gambling transactions for operators that are not authorised and licensed, and warn punters that if they are caught gambling through unlicensed operators they will have their winnings confiscated and forfeited to the National Gambling Regulator.
This body will also be tasked with maintaining a register of unlawful gambling operators to ensure that such illegal operators are banned from obtaining South African licensing for five years.
See the Ministry’s announcement here: https://www.gov.za/sites/default/files/41787_gon742.pdf
Infopowa news was a staple of Casinomeister’s news from 2000 until 2019. Brian Cullingworth was the main writer, contributor, and was one of the most knowledgeable persons I have ever known involved in the online casino industry.
We first met in January 2001 at the ICE in London where I observed him going booth to booth interviewing online casino, software, and licensing jurisdiction representatives. Brian was also heavily involved with our forum as “Jetset“, he was involved as an informal consultant to eCOGRA, the OPA, and was a player advocate who assisted countless aggrieved players with his connections to industry folks. He also published “Casino Cautions” via Infopowa news for quite a number of years. These can be found in our news archives.
His passing in February 2019 was a dark day for us. He will be forever missed.
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