South African gamblers are in for some very bad news. Although they have been waiting for legal online casino and poker games they might need to wait until they get a new national government. Geordin Hill-Lewis, a member of the South African Parliament has proposed new legislation to expand gambling in South Africa for a long time. His proposal asks to expand sports betting to include casino and poker games. However, the African National Congress was not swayed.
The Department of Trade and Industry and National Gambling Board are currently trying to block online gambling websites from other countries. Both of these entities have a strict campaign against any outside casino and poker websites.
A seminar was held in Johannesburg aimed at regulators, legislators, banks, academics and stakeholders with regards to the problems that online gambling can cause. The Casino Association of South Africa also feels that online gambling is responsible for a 5% loss in land-based industries in the last few years.
It seems that the National Gambling Board is trying to organize a disciplinary task team which needs to create strategies to block illegal gambling operators. All of this is just making users more and more confused about which sites are legal and which are not.
All of this will mostly just befuddle users and a lot of dissent between different organizations who have their own personal interests in the matter.