South Africa Takes Step Towards Online Gambling Legality
The government of South Africa has taken the first initial steps in its journey towards legalizing online gambling in the country – ending a long period of ambiguity. The move marks a shift away from a difficult period for South African gambling merchants, for over 14 years the nation has resisted the integration of the gambling business. Proving to be such a profitable and unique business opportunity, the gambling vertical in South Africa will undergo a period of regulatory onboarding, this move will see new businesses pop-up, and the existing reach of operators be able to expand more freely toward online gambling platforms across the country.
Online gambling in South Africa is entering a new period under a revised legal framework. The legislation seeks to set a precedence for the growth of online gambling across the country. ©jeanvdmeulen/Pixabay
The current law in South Africa does allow for gambling to take place in the online medium, so long as the operator in question holds a license from a provincial authority. This technicality has caused a number of issues since the country does not have a well-defined legislative framework on the brokerage of gambling laws. This leaves things very much open to interpretation. The National Gambling Act of 2008 was intended to be the mechanism by which the country would control the roll-out, however until now it has failed to provide clarity.
In an attempt to revamp the current state of affairs in the country, the Democratic Alliance party is set to introduce a bill that will pursue many of the same goals the original instigators of the law had intended. As this would lead to a number of difficult scenarios across the board, the bill will be particularly inclusive of interactive/online gambling laws that are currently not regulated in South Africa.
The risk to large-scale market inefficiencies as a direct result of these bills not being correctly adopted is something that the participants remain acutely aware of. In the coming political debates it will be incredibly interesting to see how the evolution of the chances go. The political debates around the legality of gambling are always a contentious topic in South Africa, a country that has struggled to find consensus on these issues for some time.
Five Points Regarding the New Legislation
The 2022 South Africa gambling legislation is set to be one of the most structurally significant and wide-sweeping in recent years. The country’s senior politicians believe the time is right to bring about these changes, and the consequences they bring have been assessed to be mostly positive. The legislation itself has not yet been published, and remains eagerly awaited. What we do know is that the legislation will cover five fundamental areas of gambling law.
First of all will be the issue of who is allowed to obtain a license from the state. The bill will provide a framework that must be used to determine a procedure for rejecting license applications. The second area of attention for the new set of laws will be the way in which gambling advertising is handled, and regulated. The current framework has neglected the protection of minors and vulnerable people – there will be an emphasis to punish operators that fail to be compliant with the South African Financial Intelligence Centre Act (FICA).
The rest of the points are much aligned with good gambling practices that are observed in Europe, North America, and Asia. The reason this bill has so much attention now is due to the timing of the inclusions. South Africa is considered a highly lucrative economy, with untapped potential. The operators already working across the region will have to undergo a series of feedback rounds if they want to make any amendments to the structure of the bill.
New operators are entering the market at break-neck speed, and overseas sportsbook Amelco has already initiated a joint-venture with locally owned LulaBet. Moves like this will become increasingly more common as the South African gambling market opens itself up to the investments and partnerships that overseas sports betting companies can bring.
