South African minister warns on illegal online gambling

During his appearance this week before the South African parliament’s Portfolio Committee on Trade and Industry, Minister Rob Davies again warned that online gambling is expressly illegal in South Africa, and this situation is unlikely to change.

The minister revealed that government is liaising with financial institutions with effective financial blocking initiatives in mind, commenting:

“Anyone operating illegally under the presumption that eventually they will be legalised ought to understand that they will not get a licence for this.

“South Africans participating in online gambling have no defence or recourse if they get ripped-off. We are also talking to institutions that are dealing with money laundering to ensure that banks are not processing such transactions,” Davies said.

Several committee members agreed with the minister that online gambling should not be legalised and ANC representative Priscilla Tozama Mantashe commented:

“When someone would support online gambling you wonder whose interest is the person promoting. A person who is serving the poor people will not support online. The majority of our people especially the poor do not understand online gambling.”

Committee members called on the Department of Trade and Industry to educate the public about the dangers and the risks of online gambling.