It appears that the South African government has sided with land-based gambling. The issue has been on the table for some years, creating a somewhat grey area, however, since the final version of the policy document released by the Department of Trade and Industry, it seems that the government has chosen which direction it plans to go with online gambling legislation.
South Africa's National Gambling Policy
The final version of South Africa's National Gambling Policy has put forward the argument that the country does not plan to legalise online casino gambling. The government has affirmed its support of the land-based gambling industry, claiming that the land-based operations create jobs in the country. The government is concerned that competition from online casino gambling will take business away from the land-based entities.
Before the final National Gambling Policy was released, there had been some hope that the government would choose to legalise online gambling because of the large amount of funds it can create with both licensing fees and taxation.
In the National Gambling Policy, it reads Internet gambling is "not inherently labour intensive" and that the industry is unlikely to "produce significant jobs compared to other regulated activities like [land-based] casinos." It also noted the importance of protecting "gambling activities that crate jobs from unwarranted competition."
No action to ban online casinos has yet been taken, however, plans are underway to introduce legislation that will help to enforce the government's new policy. Creating the legislation could be somewhat complicated since online sports betting is considered to be legal in South Africa, and while online casinos and online sports betting are somewhat different, the two are certainly grouped together as online gambling. It is unclear how long it will take for South Africa to get this legislation together, and make changes to the National Gambling Act.
SA Government Plans to Enforce Online Gambling Policy
Some of the new measures that are expected will include action from the National Gambling Regulator. The NGR will monitor the ISP (Internet Service Provider) block that blocks criminal activity. This measure will most likely pick up at least some of the operators that do not comply with the law. To more easily enforce this, the NGR has hired more staff.
The National Gambling Regulator is the new body that will be replacing the National Gambling Board.