The country has recognized the financial value of offering a legal and regulated iGaming market
South Africa’s primary opposition party, the Democratic Alliance (DA), recently presented its Remote Gambling Bill of 2024 in Parliament. This bill marks the culmination of over two years of extensive research, drafting, and consultations with gaming industry experts. MP Dean Macpherson, the DA’s Shadow Minister of Trade, Industry, and Competition, is the bill’s sponsor.
“This initiative comes in response to the significant oversight by the ANC in failing to provide adequate protection and regulation within the online gambling industry,” said the DA in a press release. The African National Congress (ANC) is the ruling party in South Africa.
The DA says the National Gambling Amendment Act, approved by the President in 2008 for gambling regulation, has yet to be brought into operation, leaving a legal void in the gaming industry.
“It is highly concerning given the massive strides and advances online usage has increased and grown since then. By not regulating this gambling activity, the erosion of the rule of law and criminal activity is being encouraged, while the public is not as effectively protected as they are when using land-based gaming operations. At the same time, a lack of regulation is resulting in revenue worth billions of Rands and jobs being lost to other gambling jurisdictions,” said the statement.
The proposal’s goal was to introduce regulations allowing the relevant provincial authorities to issue licenses, meaning that the centralized national gambling board would no longer have control over the process. However, the DA claims that the board is “a shadow of itself.”
It would also set procedures for objecting to licenses, regulate advertising, provide security for minors and vulnerable individuals, and guarantee adherence to the Financial Intelligence Centre Act (FICA).
