The recent formation and show of unity from the Civil Society Coalition Against Online Gambling could underpin that the campaign against online gambling is building in South Africa.
In total, 107 organisations joined the coalition in a bid to boost the campaign to prohibit online gambling in one of the continent’s most thriving markets. They also laid out plans for further action, which include marches and public education campaigns.
The group launched a memorandum titled “Protecting Our People: Ending the Silent Epidemic of Online Gambling”, which highlights specific next steps it is aiming for, including a total ban on online gambling and advertising, a freeze on new gambling licences and key changes to the National Gambling Act to challenge digital gambling and criminalise unlicensed operators.
According to a report by South African news site, the IOL, Dhilosen Pillay, former chairperson of the Free State Gambling, Liquor and Tourism Board, has laid the blame firmly at the feet of soft regulation.
Pillay stated: “For the term online gambling, you do not have a licence for online gambling. There’s a bookmaker’s licence, which is a fixed-odds licence. Now, the National Gambling Board, formed in 2004, was disbanded in 2014. So we have the administrator, and it’s impossible for the administrator to take into consideration all factors pertaining to gambling.
“The national board only issues licences to casinos. The rest, bookmaker, totalizator, limited-payout, and bingo licences are issued by provincial gambling boards.
“Now the provincial gambling boards are born out of an act of the legislature and not of the national government. So the provincial legislatures then pass an act that creates a provincial gambling board. And these are the gambling boards that approve these particular licences. So, when gambling online, what are you actually betting on? You are actually gambling with a fixed odds licence, which is what we call bookmaker licences.”
Following orders earlier in the year from Parks Tau, Minister of Trade, Industry, and Competition, South Africa has been in the midst of regulatory action on cleaning up unlicensed gambling advertising in the country.
Key to the overhaul from Tau was the tackling of illegal online gambling ads and providing increasing clarity in the gambling framework after a seven-year operational hiatus that last saw the Council convening in 2018.
Updating Parliament, Tau stated: “The National Gambling Act prohibits the placing of advertisements in media primarily directed at persons under the age of 18.
“There is an issue of sponsorship of family-friendly programmes, where major bookkeepers sponsor them. This results in the increase of visibility and frequency of gambling content during shows mostly viewed by minors.”
Tau added: “There is an intention to ensure that we can regulate online gambling. It is an environment where different provinces have different approaches, with some being more relaxed. We also want to ensure that there is rehabilitation of addicts.”
It comes amidst increasing gambling engagement in the country, with the lack of regulation leading to the growth of engagement from South African players with operators based outside the country.
An NGB report stated that R1.1trn (£41bn) was wagered during FY24, presenting a significant economic opportunity for the country.
