Gambling News by House of Odds

Online and cellphone gaming will become legal for the first time in SA if a
draft amendment bill adopted by the cabinet last week is finally passed into
law. The South African gambling industry has been frustrated by the length
of time it has taken government to come up with regulations to legalise
internet gaming. Foreign operators, particularly British operators, have
been waiting for internet gaming to be legalised so that they can enter the
domestic market, while provincial governments have been losing out on an
additional source of tax revenue. The draft bill proposes a licensing system
for both the players and the online gaming websites. The manner in which
gaming proceeds would be taxed still had to be determined, trade and
industry deputy director-general Astrid Ludin said yesterday. She said a key
challenge in drafting the proposed legislation was to find a way to
effectively regulate anything on the internet and how to prevent
money-laundering. Additional resources would be required for the proposed
regulations to be enforced by the National Gambling Board. The department
also had to look at the economic effect of interactive gambling and attempt
to restrict access to a select audience, which would exclude young people. A
proposed way of limiting the scope of online gambling would be to make it
illegal for advertisers to advertise on gambling sites, Ludin said.
Interactive gambling was outlawed by the National Gambling Act of 2004
because government considered that more time was needed to conduct research
into this form of gaming, which has assumed massive proportions worldwide.
The act gave Trade and Industry Minister Mandisi Mpahlwa two years to draw
up regulations to govern internet gambling, which will be regulated in terms
of the proposed Gambling Amendment Bill. The long-awaited regulations stem
from a report compiled by a National Gambling Board committee and the
recommendations of a national gambling policy committee consisting of
Mpahlwa and the provincial MECs responsible for gambling.