South Africa bans online gambling: report

Aug 24, 2010, 16:45 GMT

Johannesburg - Gambling authorities in South Africa have banned online gambling following a court judgment, the country's main business paper reported Tuesday.

Business Day newspaper quoted officials as saying internet gambling had been made illegal by an August 20 ruling in the Johannesburg High Court.

The ruling makes it illegal for companies to offer online gambling to South African residents as well as for South African residents to participate.

Internet service providers that offer online gambling, and financial institutions that handle the winnings, were also bound by the new regulations, the report said.

In 2006, the United States banned online gambling but didn't manage to snuff out the practice. The US Congress is currently considering a bill that would legalize some online gambling, providing it was taxed.

According to Business Day, people who are found guilty of breaking South Africa's gambling laws could face a fine of 10 million rand (around 1.4 million dollars) or ten years in jail, or both.

Casinos had yet to respond to the move, but aficionados of online poker and other online gamblers expressed scorn, pointing out that such a ban would be almost impossible to implement. Many online gambling sites operate from abroad.

'Another ruling on things they can't regulate. Lovely,' a reader reacted on South Africa's Fin24.com financial news site.

'While I agree that excessive gambling could be a 'bad' thing, I also believe that it is not up to the government to decide what is good for me,' wrote another. 'Many worse things are perfectly legal, including gambling at a (physical) casino.'

The South African online gambling industry is estimated to be worth between 400 million and 1 billion rand.