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The rule states that it is legal to play at online casinos, as long as they are not based in South Africa. This is because it is illegal to open and run an online casino if the base is in South Africa. Meaning that you can gamble online, using other country’s online casinos. Legal Online Gambling in South Africa In terms of interactive gaming (online gambling), section 11 of the gambling act 2004 issued by the NGB still remains firm, it states that: “A person must not engage in or make available an interactive game except as authorised in terms of this Act or any other national law”.

It’s practically impossible to talk about online gambling in South Africa without saying a word or two about the history of gambling in general in the country. Namely, it is a history of long restrictions. Actually, they had existed for so long that a lot of people are still wondering whether online gambling is legal.

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Legal Casino Regulations in South Africa. The National Gambling Act of 2004 banned online gambling in South Africa. This was cemented with updated laws in September 2011 that clarified online gambling is illegal within South Africa.

The History of Gambling in South Africa

The very first gambling restrictions were introduced in 1673. In the 20th century, the 60s saw an overall prohibition of all types of gambling except for horse racing. Someone argued that it was more of a sporting activity. Nevertheless, as long as there are rules, there will be people breaking them. It therefore comes as no surprise that there were about 2,000 illegal casinos.

Gradually this changed, largely through the efforts of Sol Kersner and his Sun International group, which cut deals with most of our neighbouring countries and states, so that full blown casino resorts were within a few hours drive of most South Africans.

Finally, the election of democratic government brought legalisation of gambling, which was eventually granted by the National Gambling Act of 1996 and has been controlled by the National Gaming Board ever since. This also meant the reduction of the number of casinos, since today there are around 60 casinos operating around the country.

The Rise of Online Gambling in South Africa

Online gambling took a little longer to take off in South Africa than in some other parts of the world, but is now a thriving industry with a constantly growing number of fans.

After 1994 with the major change in government came other major changes to our gambling legislation, and suddenly it was possible for clubs to obtain gambling licenses right in our cities. But alongside that came the gradual roll-out of Internet services.

You see, 1994 was also the year online gambling began worldwide, but we lagged behind mainly because of public awareness – gambling had for so long been prohibited – and partly because it would be years before broadband connections became commonplace in this country.

Well, what is essential for online gambling is being online. Though it is cited that the internet in South Africa appeared as early as 1988 (an email link was established), considering the speed and other challenges, the internet wasn’t accessible or fast enough until 2002. This is when Telkom introduced its first commercial ADSL product. As for wireless services, they came to rule in 2004. From then on, the things have only been getting better, hand in hand with online casinos.

True, online gambling had its challenges since the government seemed at times pretty torn between legalizing and banning online gambling. This made the players feel rather confused, but today they are gambling online as much as possible. One of the biggest indicators is the fact that even international casinos have started to have withdrawal and deposit facilities in rands. Obviously, South Africans love online gambling, otherwise they would bother to go the bank and open an account in US dollars or pounds.

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Why is Online Gambling so Popular?

Online gambling ensures you have your privacy, and you can play at almost any time, with whomever you want to. Perhaps the greatest appeal isn’t just its easy accessibility, but its awards, too.

Awards are the main factor that draws South African players onto the gaming tables of online casinos, but apart from awards there is the presence of networked games and their progressive jackpots that yield bigger wins than any traditional land-based casinos

You see, most online casinos are running software produced by only a handful of major developers. Now, most developers have affiliate networks that all online casinos running their software belong to. Certain branded games at these casinos all contribute to a single progressive jackpot, meaning that every time someone plays, a small slice of their wager goes towards a group pot. And with literally millions of people around the world playing the same game, that jackpot can climb astronomically high.

For example, a company called Microgaming produces a video slot game called Mega Moolah. Microgaming is one of the most reputable and popular developers out there, so a lot of online casinos run their software platform loaded with their games. With all of this exposure, Mega Moolah creates millionaires worldwide, every year. At the time of writing this article, the progressive jackpot attached to the game has just exceeded £6,000,000, and is still growing.

Convert that to rands in your head, and you suddenly see why online gambling is so popular in South Africa.

It took quite a while for online gambling to be possible, and legal, too, but today its future finally looks bright.

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Until relatively recently, online gambling law was quite a grey area in South Africa. The main reason for this was that the relevant laws and statutes covering gambling were not up to date in terms of these new forms of gambling made possible by the Internet. So online gambling and poker became popular among South Africans. The most well-known 'local' online casino, Piggs Peak (situated in the neighbouring territory of Swaziland), offered both online casino gambling and online poker to South African players. It flourished for a good few years.

Then the situation changed, as the spotlight fell on this hitherto effectively unregulated industry.

The South African government promulgated the National Gambling Act of 2004, which made it illegal to engage in what it termed 'interactive gambling services' and the offering or advertising of these services for South Africans. By 'interactive' the law refers to Internet games. This covers both casino games and poker games, whether offered by operators inside South Africa or outside of its borders. But there is an important distinction that is identified.

Is Online Casino Legal In South Africa Right Now

While online casino and poker games were made unlawful, online sports betting and online horse race betting were specifically made legal. This is as long as the operator is fully licensed by one of the South African provincial gambling licensing boards. So, for example, the most popular South African sports betting website, SportingBet, is fully licensed by the Western Cape Gambling Board and operates completely legally inside the country. It is used by thousands of sports bettors every day.

In the meantime, however, Piggs Peak continued to offer both online casino and online poker, effectively under the impression that online gambling offered from an offshore location was not adequately covered in the Gambling Act. They took this all the way to the North Gauteng High Court in an effort to get a legal stamp of approval on their services, but were ultimately unsuccessful and were forced to bar South Africans from playing.

In concert with this, South African banks do not allow bank accounts and credit cards to be used to transfer funds to online casinos. However, it is still possible to do so using online banking methods such as NETeller or uKash, etc.

At the same time it was – and still is – recognised that online gambling is a huge industry that attracts many South Africans, and that the problem is not so much one of whether it should or should not be legalised, but more one of how to regulate it. To this end the National Gambling Amendment Act of 2008 was drawn up with a view to bringing it before Parliament in order to have online gambling legalised and regulated. The amendment attracted a lot of opposition from land-based casinos, for many of the same reasons as the situation in America, where these casinos feared losing customers and revenue to their online competition. The fact remains, thought, that there is currently legislation on the books and quite possibly in the pipeline that will make online gambling legal for South Africans.

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While the above is quite clear, there are of course plenty of overseas online casinos that offer online gambling to South Africans, and online payment methods that can be used. And there remains every possibility that online gambling will soon be legalised in the country, once the National Gambling Amendment Act of 2008 goes through Parliament and is signed into law.

Of course sports betting is fully legal for South Africans. At the moment betting on horse racing predominates, but as more sports betting websites emerge and broadband and mobile Internet access increases, this is likely to change, with a swing towards sports betting. South Africa is, after all, a sports mad nation.

Companies like PwC expect gambling activities and revenues to continue to grow, indicating that the country's appetite shows no sign of waning. And in the face of this, the legalisation and regulation of online gambling looks likely to follow shortly. This is especially buoyed by the realisation that in South Africa, as in the rest of the world, the most important factors are safe access and responsible gambling. Given that South Africans have ways of circumventing the laws, this becomes even more of an imperative.

In light of the widespread availability of online gambling and the Internet's ability to make national borders permeable, it appears to be in everyone's interests for the National Gambling Amendment of 2008 to become law, so that the industry can operate transparently, safely and responsibly for South African players. It has been reported by PwC that the South African government had plans to issue ten online casino gambling licences in the period around 2009, but this has obviously not happened yet. We await the next roll of the dice...