Legal Aspects of Online Gambling in South Africa
Gambling in South Africa has always been restricted and in 1965 the Gambling Act made all forms of gambling an illegal practice, apart from betting on the horses, which was classed as a sporting activity. In spite of this tough stance towards gambling though, many South Africans continued to resist these constraints and carried on gambling, which meant that all gambling activities took place in unlicensed venues. It was back in the 1970s when the first real wave of casinos started popping up and then by the mid-1990s more than 2,000 of these unlicensed and unregulated gaming venues were in operation, serving to the needs of hundreds of thousands of South African gamblers.
Full Details of Gambling Legaility in SA
A new government came in to power in 1994 and this new administration legalised land based casinos and established the new National Gambling Act in 1996. All forms of gambling were now to be regulated by the National Gaming Board. A revised version of this act was implemented in 2004 and the National Gambling Amendment Act arrived just four years later. These two new Acts were particularly aimed at regulating the new medium of online gambling in South Africa.
It does actually state on the National Gambling Board website that online gambling is ‘technically’ illegal and even though this is the case, we have found that most South African provinces do very little to stem the flow of online casinos. The South African market has been referred to as one of the biggest gambling markets in the world and while it is still technically illegal to gamble at one of these sites, we also found that nobody has ever been prosecuted for playing at a South African online casino today which operates from an offshore location.
The Trade and Industry Minister Rob Davies has repeatedly stated that a fully regulated online gambling market would soon be available to South Africans, but despite these repeated suggestions from the Trade and Industry Minister, there has been no new legislation drawn up and there has been no sign that this is coming any time soon. A 2011 Gambling Review Commission report also pressed for new online gambling regulations which could help open up the market in South Africa.
Another report has also revealed that gambling in South Africa has showed no signs of slowing down in recent years and that as many as 5% of South Africans gamble to the excess. In attempt to prevent excessive gambling, the government decided that it would keep all wins over R25,000 (even lottery wins) from regulated sites, but they would find it impossible to do this at any of our featured casinos. If the South African government was to draw up some kind of new legislation and enforce online gambling regulation controls, not only would it instantly gain a firm hold over the market, but it would also generate a significant amount of revenue.
In 2011, a landmark South African supreme court ruled against Piggs Peak Casino, stating that it was not allowed to offer real cash gambling services to South African players. Despite this ruling, numerous internationally based online casino operators continue marketing their real cash gambling services to South Africans with little regard for the laws.
Each of the highly recommended South African casinos that we have reviewed and recommended for you right here on this site has obtained a license from one of several reputable licensing jurisdictions around the world, namely from the Government of Gibraltar or from Curaçao, which is an island in the southern Caribbean Sea, off the Venezuelan coast that forms part of the Dutch Caribbean. These casinos are perfectly secure and they are also monitored by reputable internationally accredited online casino testing agencies such as Technical Systems Testing (TST).
If you are based in South Africa and want to play in a perfectly secure online casino, why not head over to one of our highly recommended South African online casinos. These top-rated SA online casinos ALL welcome players from South Africa and they all accept South African Rand. You can sign up for free and gamble in the real money mode at great sites such as 888 Casino, Club SA Casino, Mansion Casino, Slots Heaven, Les A Casino, Omni Casino, Fly Casino, Bet365 Casino, Golden Palace Casino, Casino King and Casino Las Vegas. Many of these casinos also now provide toll-free support for South African players.
