Online gambling is a popular activity among South African folks. However, despite South Africans’ love for online gambling, it remains a controversial matter. This is because betting is received with different enthusiasm by different people in the country.
On one end of the divide are the reformers who are keen on promoting online gambling. They have since made online betting platforms easier to access and even encouraged South African Rand online casinos. On the other end stood those who are eager to uphold and maintain the current restrictions in place.
Thanks to the persistence of reformers and the support of passionate players, online gambling in South Africa has become bigger than ever.
Keep reading, as we will be discussing the series of reforms that have led to the rise of online gambling in South Africa.
The Legal History of Online Gambling in South Africa
Before 1994, all gambling activities were banned in South Africa. However, the SA government repealed the blanket ban and introduced a comprehensive licensing system in the 1996 National Gambling Act.
This gave South Africa’s National Gambling Board (NGB) the power to regulate the gambling industry as a whole. It also allowed South Africa’s nine local provinces to license both land and online sports bookers.
Restrictions on gambling activities eased off a little more for the land casinos and online sports bookers with the 2004’s National Gambling Act reform. However, the same cannot be said for online casinos, as they were still banned.
These new laws allowed more online sports bookers to enter the industry, and they did not disappoint, as they offered players many interesting sports to check out.
The only form of online gambling that is legal in South Africa is sports betting.
In 2010, the South African courts declared that it was illegal for foreign-based online casinos to allow locals to register, gamble, and win money. Only licensed operators regulated and taxed by the National Gambling Board and local provinces are operating legally.
Nonetheless, these laws don’t pose so much of a concern for foreign-based operators, as they are located far away outside South Africa’s borders and stand little to no risk of facing any penalties.
The Growing Popularity of Golf and Other Sports Markets
Since foreign operators aren’t at risk of facing fines for opening their services to South African residents, a good number of them currently cater to the locals.
888 and Mr. Green are among the most popular offshore casinos for SA residents. Due to foreign brands, there has been an increase in South African-based online gamblers who bet on popular games like soccer, basketball, and rugby in recent years.
Surprisingly, golf has become a very popular market in online sports betting in SA. This can be credited to the international successes of South African golfers like Ernie Els, Louis Oosthuizen, and Charl Schwartzel.
One cannot deny how these golf superstars helped popularize the golf markets across sports betting sites in SA, as hundreds of thousands of locals now bet on golf games.
Besides golf, the Afrikaans sport “Jukskei” has also begun to make waves, although it isn’t so popular on mainstream betting sites.
The Rise in Number of South African Online Gamblers
According to South Africa’s National Gambling Board, Gross Gambling Revenue (GGR) has risen for several years.
In a study by NGB, the Gross Gaming Revenue (GGR) grew by as much as 7% between 2017 and 2018. This clearly shows that more South Africans are gambling every year. This figure encompasses revenues from online land casinos. However, online casino growth is majorly responsible for the boom in SA’s gambling revenue.
Other reports have shown that land casinos are losing the popularity fight to online casinos due to the explosion of mobile phone technology.
The boom of Android or iOS smartphones in South Africa has offered gamblers a more convenient betting means. Online platforms also offer their customers a wider range of betting options and rewards such as sign-up and first deposit bonuses.
On top of that, gambling online eliminates the secondary costs associated with gambling in land casinos, as SA residents can play from the comfort of their homes. These secondary costs include bus/train fares, petrol, food, drinks, hotel bills, etc.
It is also clear that SA residents enjoy the extra fun attached to online gambling. This comes in the form of innovative social features that allow players to interact via online forums and chat with dealers and the operator’s customer support personnel.
Moreso, smartphone innovations will keep gamblers in South Africa glued to their mobile screens for longer. And this is expected to continue since we all know that the technology will only get better and more convenient over the years.
This trend has come to stay in South Africa, and we can expect nothing less than a spike in remote gambling in the future.
Final Words
As more online gambling platforms continue to enter the market, so are more gamblers signing up. As SA’s National Gambling Board has reported a rise in Gross Gambling Revenue, South African residents aren’t left out.
Smartphone technology has also made online gambling more popular than ever, and no one knows how big it will become in the future.
Watch this space for updates in the Gaming category on Running Wolf’s Rant.
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