South African government criticises new online bill
Department of Trade and Industry says legislation of online gambling would be "inappropriate"
South Africa’s ruling African National Progress party has rejected a fresh bill which aims to regulate online gaming, describing legislation of the act as “inappropriate” during a time of high unemployment and poverty.
Earlier this week opposition Democratic Alliance spokesperson on trade and industry Geordin Hill-Lewis tabled a new private members bill in which he called for an end to costly prohibition, which would in turn would generate much needed revenues for treasury coffers.
“Prohibition requires massive new resources to be devoted to enforcement with no cost recovery,” Hill-Lewis said when presenting the bill.
“Regulation is inherently self-Âfunding. It is funded by licence fees of the operators and the tax they pay to the South African fiscus, not foreign governments,” he added.
However, the bill was immediately criticised by government ministers, who said because no impact assessment had been carried out, feared it would exacerbate an already growing problem gambling issue in the country.
The government also said implementation of the bill, which will be subject to a series of presentations and debates next week, would disproportionately affect the poor and unemployed and lead to unfair competition with the land-based industry.
Local gambling lawyer Wayne Lurie, director at Lurie Inc., who has been called to participate in next week’s debates, said after many years of debate, it was time for the government to “take its head out of the sand”.
“It’s now 12 years of running around in circles without any progress and the administration continues to struggle to see the wood through the trees,” Lurie told eGaming Review.
“They make the case that online gambling would take advantage of the poor but I would argue that it has a far higher barrier to entry than walking into a slots hall or land-based casino.
“For internet gaming, you need a sophisticated smartphone or a PC, a cell phone contract with data which a lot of the impoverished won’t have, you need to have a credit card in order to make online purchases so that already removes around 25% of the gamblers they say are at risk,” he added.
Online sports betting is currently permitted in South Africa however online gaming products are prohibited under local law.