South African Legislation Criticisms
New legislation in South Africa concerning online casinos has been a long time
coming, and even though the latest bill is closer to where it needs to be,
others think there is still more work to be done before any gambling bills will
pass through the government. The South African government, specifically the
Department of Industry and Trade (DTI), recently held a committee meeting to
discuss the National Gambling Amendment Bill NGA Bill. And some representatives
from online casinos in the remote gambling industry attended the meetings as a
way to judge the status of legalizing internet gambling activities in South
Africa.
The NGA Bill has some strong supporters in the online casino gambling industry –
the bill calls for strict licensing and regulations of internet gambling sites
allowed to offer services to South Africans. Most industry analysts agree that
the NGA Bill is a step in the right direction, but there are still drawbacks
that are still left to be addressed says a representative for the online casino
betting site Betfair. Betfair’s legal counsel, Elliott Kernohan, attended the
hearings and noted one particular aspect of the NGA bill that “needs to go back
to the drawing board."
Kernohan notes that though the Chief Executive at CASA, Derek Auret, is
concerned ensuring that “the standards that his constituency has had to meet are
applied across the board," in actuality, from the point of view of the online
casino industry, “it's slightly bigger than that.” Kernohan elaborates on where
the NGA is lacking, These requirements and these protections that are to be
provided for South African players really need to be imposed right across the
online gambling space. It doesn't matter whether you're an online casino or
whether it's online poker or sports betting or anything in between, it's the
perceived risks of transacting through the Internet that need to be addressed,
and that's what we think needs to go back to the drawing board."
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