REGULATION AND COMBATING OF ONLINE GAMBLING REMAIN A CHALLENGE IN SOUTH AFRICA

REGULATION AND COMBATING OF ONLINE GAMBLING REMAIN A CHALLENGE IN SOUTH AFRICA

The regulation and combating of online gambling remain a challenge in South Africa due to a number of illegal sites operating in the country without clear enforcement and control. The challenges on online gambling were pointed out by a number of stakeholders during the seminar on online gambling hosted by the Department of Trade and Industry (the dti) and National Gambling Board (NGB) in Pretoria today.

The seminar intended to raise awareness of illegal online gambling, and was attended by policy-makers, regulators, banks, academics, counsellors, consultants, lawyers, cyber experts, psycho social professionals and other specialists in the field of gambling.

The Chief Director of Policy and Legislation at the dti, Mr MacDonald Netshitenzhe said the introduction of another form of gambling in the country would not have a positive impact on the economy as the negative social consequences far outweigh the benefits.

He said in light of this, policy makers should rather focus on building capacity and putting systems in place that will be able to combat and fight illegal gambling as whole.

“There are number of challenges that make it impossible to control and combat illegal gambling in the country. One major challenge is that South Africa has no control over borderless activities of other countries. Our main task as policy makers is to come up with strategies that will make it easy for all stakeholders involved to fight these challenges,” said Netshitenzhe.

Netshitenzhe added that the policy position and act on online gambling in South Africa was clear in that it is illegal and should be treated as such.

The NGB representative Ms Estelle Jonkheid said a multi-disciplinary task team which include law enforcement agencies, gambling regulators and license holders has recently been established to address illegal gambling in South Africa.

“The establishment of a multi-disciplinary task team is to consider strategies, interventions and actions against more than 2000 illegal operators and sites across all provinces in South Africa,” said Jonkheid.

She said the task team would determine the impact of illegal and online gambling and find ways to strengthen the capacity to combat illegal gambling.

The Chief Executive Officer of Casino Association of Southern Africa (CASA), Advocate Themba Ngobese said there was a need for illegal gambling to be controlled or legalised as it erodes the revenue of the regulated side of gambling.

He said combating and regulation will remain government problem if other proposals and options are not followed through. He emphasised that as an association they wish to see that if online gambling is allowed, that it be allowed with restrictions and controls.

The seminar focused on the policy position of prohibition of online gambling in South Africa, the social and harmful effects of online gambling in the country, practical strategies to prohibit it and approaches to effectively enforce the ban of online gambling. 

Caption: Panel discussion online gambling in Pretoria today. From left; Adv Themba Ngobese (CASA), Mr Sizwe ka Mtuze (Snail Attorneys at Law), Mr Peter Smit (Financial Intelligence Centre), Mr MacDonald Netshitenzhe (the dti) and Ms Queen Mogane (South African Reserve Bank)