Online Gambling in South Africa is about to be legalized

[Topboss]

The headlines in our local newspaper The Star had an article on Saturday about online gambling. It is too much to write here, but the gist of it is the following:
The headlines were:
"Online Gambling needs regulation, says commission - After being banned a fortnight ago, this increasingly popular pastime may just be about to be legalized"
Snippets from the article are the following " Just 2 weeks ago a court ordered that online gambling be banned as it was an illegal practice. Now parliament is on the cusp of closing the loophole and legalising it after a presentation by the Gambling Review Commission"
"The commission was set up in December and looked at gambling as a whole, including online gambling, and how popular it has become"
"Ntuli added that the findings and recommendations would be handed over to the Minister of the DTI ( Dept of Trade and Industry ) for consideration before the end of the month. The Minister will first consider their report and amend where necessary. thereafter the findings will be presented to parliament so that it can be tabled"

So if we are lucky online gambling in SA might be legal before the end of the year!!!

[HBKKH]

Is legalization a good thing? I don't know much about the situation over there but are they going to have state run operations like in Canada (OLG)? Meaning cutting out the affiliates and taxing the hell out of everything? Or are they doing as France/Uk allowing the big companies to dish out $ to white list the brands?

[Topboss]

From what I have heard so far - It is not going to be a Government run situation and they are initially going to approve 10 licenses, I believe that one of the requirements will be that the Company must have offices in South Africa.

[HBKKH]

Ahhh. Come to think of it nothing will really change. offshore books/casino/poker rooms will still take bets for Aussie players even without the white list. The larger programs will prob pull out until they get a white list.

[mojo]

Thanks for the info topboss. The SA situation is confusing to me tbh.

For affiliates, I'm wondering how this effects them or do things stay pretty much the same on who you can promote?

[Topboss]

At this stage we are pretty much carrying on business as normal, but I think we will have clearer guidelines once the final bill gets published.
I will update here whenever I get more info.

[davenewgates]

Hmm... I'm not so sure but I think it's better to be legalized than not, because either way, I'm sure they would still go on with their online gambling operations. The point here is if they got legalized then the government can have the authority to collect tax revenues from them.

[HBKKH]

Hmm... I'm not so sure but I think it's better to be legalized than not, because either way, I'm sure they would still go on with their online gambling operations. The point here is if they got legalized then the government can have the authority to collect tax revenues from them.

Yes. Everyone is aware it's about the $. If they run their own sites much like canada - say goodbye to aff earnings from Aus players.

[Louis - Income Access]

Heather

How's the situation with payment processing in SA these days?

The last time I checked (admitedly a couple years ago), there were major troubles with players not being able to deposit because of banking troubles..

Has that situation been resolved?

Cheers

[Topboss]

How's the situation with payment processing in SA these days?

The last time I checked (admitedly a couple years ago), there were major troubles with players not being able to deposit because of banking troubles..

Has that situation been resolved?

Yes, It is much easier in SA now, and many banks process transactions without any issues. Many of the local casinos utilize SID which allows South Africans to debit their bank accounts directly from the software.

Neteller, Moneybookers and other popular e wallets are also used but many South Africans are still unfamiliar with e wallets. Paypal has recently come into SA and is becoming quite popular.