South African Online Gambling Legislation Hits Snags

The South African government's initiative to legalise and license online gambling seems to have it a few snags in what officials are calling their lack of knowledge in developing their ‘IT’ skills. Even after a delegation was sent to Antigua and Barbuda from South Africa to study the way online gambling works the country is not any closer to regulating operators. Legal and technical challenges persist in the country with loopholes in the law and IT systems. Aimed at being responsible and safe these problems are not being solved by legislators and politicians. They were making progress in 2008 when the South African government passed amendments to the National Gambling Act allowing for the implementation of regulations and licensing for web based gambling. After the proposed regulations were presented to the public for discussion the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Trade and Industry requested that the new regime be delayed. Now Parliament and the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) are holding public hearings on online gambling regulations and will only table the final proposition once all the public scrutiny has been completed. The DTI says, it has issues with the technical aspects of online gambling and the legislation needs to be revamped to deal with specifics, such as software tampering, cyber crime and money laundering.

Officials from the department have said that licensed operators would have to comply with Financial Intelligence Centre Act stipulations, to protect personal information that would be made available to them during the course of conducting online business. The Act requires that players must disclose personal details, such as an identification number and proof of residence in South Africa. Players would also have to create an account linked to a credit card or cheque account and present a bank stamp, as no cash transactions are to be permitted. There is a maximum of 20,000 Rands allowed in the individual’s gaming account at any one time. The National Gambling Act is preparing to take on a huge responsibility for online gambling within South Africa’s borders. They want to get it right the first time and be sure they are doing the right thing.