The findings of a report that has given hope to online gaming regulation will be debated in South Africa over the coming months. The wait for the findings of the Gambling Review Commission has been elongated to the max. It was worth the delay though as they told parliament that online gaming regulation should be allowed.
Minister of Trade and Industry Rob Davies, said, “The commission further advised that the National Gambling Amendment Act of 2008, be amended to include all forms of remote gambling like online betting and betting exchanges.
“It further indicated that there should be a single regulator for online gambling who should regulate national lottery and sports pools.”
They stopped short of saying there should be a free market. At the same time, the report did say that the proposal for ten licenses should be scrapped to include all local bookmakers and operators. It was added that there should be no requirement for local servers to be set up by companies as long as systems can be audited when needed.
If you look at the rewards being reaped by land-based operators, it’s hard to believe that the government hadn’t acted sooner to gain some of the money on offer. The report also admitted that the current set of rules isn’t working as it “simply creates the platform for illegal operators to thrive and establish themselves and their brands”.
The report continued, saying, “It is very resource intensive to enforce prohibitions in such an easily expanded area of gambling. Unlike land-based activities, online gambling operations can be relaunched within minutes.”
It remains to be seen what the parliament does about online gambling. With record numbers gambling on unregulated gambling sites in South Africa, the government isn’t going to find a lot easier ways of earning a bit of dough.
